(Matthew Doarnberger, Headline USA) Despite recent setbacks, activist Riley Gaines conveyed strong optimism that the U.S. Supreme Court would soon disallow biological men from competing in women’s sports.
“There’s a couple of big cases that I am excited for which will probably make it up to the Supreme Court,” Gaines told Newsweek. “The Supreme Court has never heard a Title IX case—it would be huge.”
The 1972 law for equal rights in education says that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
However, pro-women’s advocates argue that radical leftists, led by the Biden administration, have now fundamentally subverted the law’s meaning and intent by adding “gender identity” and changing the definition of womanhood to include non-biological “females.”
“It’s very simple because Title IX is only, like, 37 words,” Gaines said.
“It’s not like it’s hard to interpret or understand,” she added. “It’s just being able to define that word sex … We’ve never struggled to define that word before.”
What progressives now see as a groundbreaking movement in civil rights would have been regarded by past generations as perversion or even sexual assault, she noted.
“If you look at this at the most basic level, we were not asked for our consent, we did not give our consent yet there was a naked man taking his clothes off inches away from where we were taking our clothes off,” she said. “I mean how else could you describe sexual harassment or sexual misconduct or sexual abuse?”
Although the Supreme Court has dodged the issue in at least two recent cases, Gaines said it stood a strong chance of accepting Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools—a case brought by four former high-school track-and-field runners, including sprinter Chelsea Mitchell and the lawsuit’s namesake plaintiff, Selina Soule.
After being required under Connecticut law to compete against two transgender-identifying athletes who dominated the field of biological females, the plaintiffs argued that they were “denied medals, placements or advancement opportunities because of the male athletes competing in our events,” according to the Daily Mail.
The four, who have since graduated, have faced a long road with the support of the pro-Christian Alliance Defending Freedom—and may still have a ways to go before reaching the nation’s highest court.
In December, the full 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case en banc, allowing it to be heard before a federal district court, after it was earlier dismissed by a three-judge panel.
“I’m very hopeful this case in particular will be heard by the Supreme Court, which will be the first ruling we have on a Title IX case—which is huge right now considering what the Biden administration is doing to Title IX, which is a totally illegal administrative rewrite,” Gaines said.
“I think to get it into the Supreme Court would be monumental, and I’m looking forward to it,” she added.
Gaines, a former top swimmer at the University of Kentucky, become a champion of women’s-only competition following her own experience competing against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in 2022, where the two tied for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle race.
Thomas, who had been a mediocre male swimmer, also won the 500-yard freestyle race at the same meet.
Since becoming an activist, however, Gaines has, at times feared for her own life, she told Newsweek.
“I’ve been in situations now where … I was physically assaulted, I was held for ransom for four hours by these protesters, I’ve been spit on, I’ve had drinks poured on me, glass bottles thrown at me, I’ve been called the most obscene things you can imagine, I’ve had drones flying above my house, people showing up to my house, people staking outside my hotel room when they find out where I’m staying,” she said.
“At first it did really scare me, but I realized pretty quickly actually that that’s exactly what they’re trying to do—scare me and scare me into silence,” she continued.
However, “… even in the face of fear, I feel I’m someone who’s not going to back down from doing what I feel to be right and fair and moral and just.”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
