Riley Gaines on calls to boycott transgender athletes in female sports: Time to ‘take a knee’
Heather Hamilton
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Former championship swimmer-turned-women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines said it is time to “take a knee” at the start of athletic events “to protect the integrity of women’s sports.”
“It’s unfortunate, of course, to ask girls to do this, but we have to start making sacrifices if they want to protect the integrity of women’s sports,” Gaines told Hannity regarding the need to resist the participation of biological males who identify as females in women’s sports. “Both female and male athletes, honestly, need to start boycotting, need to take a knee, need to not run, not swim when that starting block or when the gun goes off.”
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RILEY GAINES RIPS RAPINOE AND GRINER’S SUPPORT OF TRANS WOMEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS
The Biden administration has proposed changes to Title IX making it a violation to ban transgender athletes from sporting competitions of their identified gender. The new regulation is currently in its 30-day public comment period.
Three-time Olympic cyclist Inga Thompson has also called for the protesting of policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
“It is time for Women Cyclist to start protesting [Union Cycliste Internationale] Policy,” Thompson tweeted on Sunday following rider Austin Killips, a biological male cyclist who identifies as a transgender female, winning the Tour of the Gila overall category against biological females. “Start taking a knee at the starting lines. Team managers need to speak up and protect their riders. Hold signs at every race ‘Save Women’s Sports.’”
Thompson told Fox & Friends First that the policies need to change to protect “equality in women’s sports.”
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“The science has been there for years. It’s been actively ignored because they’d rather have inclusion than fairness for the women,” Thompson said.
Thompson said public pressure is beginning to make a difference, as UCI acknowledged it would reconsider its policies.
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Gaines echoed Thompson’s sentiment: “A boycott is what’s going to have to be effective to make change. We’ve seen in the past boycotts are such; they are effective. It’s what’s going to work.”
The public comment period for the Biden administration’s proposed Title IX changes is set to end on May 15.