Sen. Hawley Questions Female Sports Advocate Riley Gaines On Competing Against Transgender Athletes

thank you Mr chairman thanks to the witnesses for being here Ms Gaines I want to start with you thank you for your courage and being here today thank you for your courage and advocacy for women you have been subjected to an unbelievable amount of abuse you talk about intimidation threats of violence you have suffered it I want to put up here a picture so everybody can see it this was the welcome you were treated to at San Francisco State University just a couple of months ago when a a mob assembled where you were supposed to speak I believe for over three hours screamed threatened you barricaded you in a room do I have that basically correct yes was held for ransom for three and a half hours by hundreds of these protesters as you see on the board they demanded that I had to pay them money if I wanted to make it home to see my family safe again the law enforcement in San Francisco I respect and I think law enforcement is what's Brave not me and I respect all law enforcement but what the law enforcement I was met with in San Francisco in my opinion failed miserably and effectively doing their job they had mentioned that it was not ideal for them to be seen as anything other than an ally to this community and that was made very obvious in the treatment and effectiveness of removing me safely from that situation why were you threatened and barricaded into a room and held for ransom for hours on end I mean what was it you were saying that was so so terrible I was invited to speak on my experience of my senior year and competing against a male um nothing opinionated about what I shared it was surely the exact lived experience of what me and my teammates and fellow competitors dealt with and so I spoke I after my speech there's of course a lot of protesters in the room which I'm totally fine with people protesting it's their right to protest but what I'm not fine with is when it does turn violent in the way that it did because protesters afterwards they rush into the room they turned off the lights they rushed to the front myself and others were assaulted and that's ultimately when I was held for hostage for three and a half hours this is unbelievable unbelievable uh thank you for your courage in the midst of that let's talk a little bit about the message that you were sharing and you started to talk about it in your opening statement just tell us about your experience because nobody can question your experience I don't think anybody's sitting at the at the table and certainly nobody at this Podium has had the experience that you have had you were talking about just the incredible surprise shall I say to put it gently of finding a biological man a six foot four biological man in your locker room and having to accept that without being asked about it without being told about it even what was that like for you tell us about that I again we only became aware we would be undressing next to a man was when we had to see a man undressing while we were simultaneously undressing and so I immediately left the locker room and I went up to one of the officials on the pool deck and I said what are the guidelines to allow a man into our locker room I know the guidelines for the competition but what are the guidelines for the locker room and he's so nonchalantly said back oh we actually got around this by making Locker Room's unisex and so I'm thinking to myself in these brief moments first and foremost you just admitted this is a male by acknowledging how you had to change your rules to make the locker rooms unisex you acknowledge that we do not share the same sex first and foremost secondly unisex any man could have walked into our locker room any coach any official any man who wanted to would have had full reins too and bare minimum we weren't forewarned about it and that's that's the traumatizing part of course the experience in and of the locker room itself is traumatizing but I think for me it was so easy for them to dismiss our rights to privacy Senator Durbin in your opening statement you had mentioned this rhetoric it's um you had mentioned that what message does it send to trans individuals and my combat to that is what message does this send to women to young girls who are denied of these opportunities so easily their rights to privacy and safety thrown out of the window to protect a small population protect one group as long as they're happy what about us that is the overall General consensus of how we all felt in that locker room why why do you think it is that the the NCAA and so many people in power seem intended just erasing your opinion your views the whole category of women I noticed that recently you just posted this to social media about a message that Harvard was sending around I think to it swimmers telling them don't talk about Leah Thomas don't share your opinions if you get contacted by a member of the media then refer that to the university Don't Say Anything For Heaven's Sake tell us about this I mean this has been your experience over and over and over you're told as a woman to shut up don't say anything what's that like that is continually happening and if we do speak up you're immediately labeled as some of some name they will call you everything under the sun whether it's transphobic homophobic racist white supremacists domestic terrorists they will throw them all at you in hopes to deter you and hopes to silence you um Leah Thomas's teammates they were forced every single week to go to mandatory lgbtq education meetings to learn about how just by being citizen or they were oppressing Leah Thomas they were told that they are not allowed to take a stance because their school has already taken their stance for them they were told they will never get a job you will never get into grad school you will lose your friends you will lose your scholarship in playing time if you speak out they told these girls that if you do speak out and any harm whatsoever comes towards Thomas's way whether that's through social media whether that's physical mental emotional harm then you are solely responsible and you could be responsible for a potential death and you don't want that do you of course not who would ever want to be responsible in a potential death but that is the emotional blackmail that is plaguing this country especially in universities last question and I'll just I'll ask this and then give you a chance to respond and I'm done with this Mr chairman um let me give you a chance to respond to something that Leah Thomas said recently publicly this she said this publicly they're using this quote now they're using the guise of feminism they meaning you using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs meaning you advocating for women women's rights is actually just a cover for transphobia do you want to respond to that feminism is not a fluid term the original and the meaning of what it means to be a feminist is to uphold respect honor Embrace and celebrate women on our own physical ceilings our own uniqueness that term has not changed and what this really is is a is a male mansplaining what it is to be a feminist which I honestly think is pretty ironic and it's something we've seen before thank you Senator Hawley

Channel: Senator Josh Hawley

Views: 2,074,036

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Length: 6min 51sec (411 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2023