Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, at a hearing on LGBTQ civil rights that included debate over the fairness of transgender females competing against biological females in women’s athletics. One of the most decorated swimmers in Wildcats history, Gaines has recently become a media lightning rod for contending that participation by transgender females in women’s sports compromises the competitive integrity and perhaps safety of women’s sports.
Gaines Challenges NCAA Rules: The Controversial Race
At Wednesday’s hearing, Gaines referred specifically to the NCAA rules that allowed University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a trans woman who competed for the Quakers’ men’s team from 2017 to 2020 as Will Thomas, to compete for the Quakers’ women’s team during the 2021-2022 season after undergoing hormone replacement therapy.
Gaines recalled watching with her teammates as Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle championship, beating the second-place finisher — Virginia’s Emma Weyant, a 2020 Olympic silver medalist — by “body lengths.” The next day, Gaines competed against Thomas in the 200-yard freestyle, where they tied for fifth place, swimming, said Gaines, “the exact same time, down to the hundredth of a second.”
Behind the Podium: The Trophy Controversy
At the post-race awards ceremony, both Gaines and Thomas stood in the spot designated for the fifth-place finisher on the Olympic-style podium (before you ask: it would appear that in any race where an NCAA title is at stake, each participant in the championship heat is awarded a place on the finishers’ podium and a trophy memorializing the place in which they finished). Unprepared for the eventuality of a tie, the NCAA only had one fifth-place trophy on hand, which was given to Thomas; Gaines, meanwhile, was given the sixth-place trophy to pose with for the pictures and told she’d have to wait for her fifth-place trophy to be mailed to her.
Naturally, Gaines was curious as to why Thomas had been handed the real prize and she the ersatz prop.
“When I asked ‘why’— which was a question they [NCAA officials] were not prepared to be asked — I actually appreciated their honesty,” Gaines told Senators. “They said it was crucial Thomas have it for picture purposes. Thomas had to have it for the pictures.
“I felt betrayed. I felt belittled. I felt reduced to a photo-op. But my feelings didn’t matter. What mattered to the NCAA were the feelings of a biological male.”
Though Thomas has gone through hormone therapy to reduce testosterone levels in accordance with the NCAA’s competition requirements, Gaines testified to vestiges of Thomas’ maleness that made several of the female athletes at the event uneasy about sharing dressing and undressing quarters with her. Gaines described Thomas to Senators as “a 6-foot-4, 22-year-old male equipped with, and exposing, male genitalia,” testifying that neither she nor any of her fellow swimmers had consented to sharing a locker room with Thomas, nor were they ever forewarned that they would be forced to either do so or dress elsewhere.
Some did choose to dress elsewhere, Gaines added, opting for the “…janitor’s closet because they felt more comfortable undressing in that environment than they did undressing next to someone with male gaze.”
Legislation and Implications: The Equality Act vs. Title IX Protections
Wednesday’s hearing, officially titled “Protecting Pride: Defending the Civil Rights of LGBTQ+ Americans,” comes after senate democrats, led by committee chair Dick Durbin (D-IL), re-introduced the Equality Act early this week. That legislation, which passed in the House before stalling-out in the Senate in 2021, would amend sections of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, including the landmark Title IX, to more broadly define sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Gaines, 23, who testified in her capacity as an advisor for the women’s advocacy group Independent Women’s Voice, warned that while the new legislation may present as well-meaning, its potential to erode longstanding Title IX protections for female athletes should concern policymakers prioritizing inclusion.
“…By allowing Thomas to displace female athletes — in the pool and on the podium — the NCAA intentionally and explicitly discriminated on the basis of sex,” Gaines told lawmakers. “Although the NCAA claimed it acted in the name of ‘inclusion,’ its policies, in fact, excluded female athletes, the very athletes whom Title IX was passed to protect.”