Swimming champion Riley Gaines was attacked on Thursday when she visited San Francisco State University to advocate for the rights of female athletes.
Gaines had begun her speech on protecting female athletes from unfair competition when protesters burst into the room where she was speaking. As she was being escorted to safety, she was physically assaulted, she said.
Gaines was forced to barricade in a room for hours as unruly protestors threatened violence.
“I'm OK currently, but an hour and a half later, I'm still barricaded in a room with ambushers on the outside yelling and threatening violence,” Gaines said. “As police escorted me out of the event space to my current location, I was hit, physically, twice by what I presume was a male individual. This only assures me I'm doing the right thing.”
Gaines's agent, Eli Bremer, said Gaines will not back down from the mob.
“Instead of a thoughtful discussion tonight at SFSU, Riley was violently accosted, shouted at, physically assaulted, and barricaded in a room by protestors. It is stunning that in America in 2023, it is acceptable for biological male students to violently assault a woman for standing up for women's rights,” Bremer said in a statement. “This will not stop Riley from boldly educating people of the dangers of biological males in women's sports. She will continue to speak the truth against the radical left that no longer understands the difference between men and women.”
Gaines, a former University of Kentucky star was recently passed over for an NCAA award by Lia Thomas, the transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer.
The Biden administration has proposed changing Title IX to expand the meaning of sexual discrimination to include gender identity which would prevent schools and colleges from barring biologically male transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams.
“The U.S. Department of Education (Department) proposes to amend its regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) to set out a standard that would govern a recipient's adoption or application of sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student's eligibility to participate on a male or female athletic team consistent with their gender identity,” the Department of Education wrote Thursday.
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