Riley Gaines and a “post-Feminist” America:
Is there a future for feminism and LGBTQ+ civil rights after Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency?
Former champion NCAA women’s swimmer and conservative activist Riley Gaines-Barker. The photo is courtesy of RileyGaines.com.
“I don’t want to call myself a feminist. Women are just as equal as men, especially in the workplace. We have come a long way, and more work must be done. I think domestically we are making progress, and I do believe that we will become equal one day.” – 2017 Miss USA Kara McCullough
**********
On Monday, November 11th, 2024, Substack writer Richard Hanania posted a political analysis by American neuroscientist Sam Harris regarding Elon Musk’s motivations for supporting President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign to return to the US presidency.
Sam Harris focused on Mr. Musk’s political radicalization after his child’s sex transition and “trans” advocacy. We here at Public Health Policy Reviews have NOT delved into the issue of transgender rights. We do not know any transgender people and consider transgender rights as a subset of LGBT rights, which encompasses civil liberties issues.
However, we wonder if Elon Must will use his billionaire fortune, his social media platform, and his newfound leading bureaucratic “government efficiency” role in the upcoming Trump administration to launch a campaign against LGBT+ rights and feminism in the future. Whatever the political future after Mr. Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, 2025, his administration and Elon Musk will have a zealous ally in former champion NCAA women’s swimmer Riley Gaines.
**********
Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas (left) and Riley Gaines on the victory podium at the 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The video screen grab is courtesy of YouTube.
In 2022, Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer – became a nationally renowned and politically conservative opponent of biologically male participants in female sports.
The former Ms. Gaines, who recently married and now goes by Mrs. Riley Gaines-Barker, began her political activism after she competed against University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in 2022. Lia Catherine Thomas, who used to compete as a male named William Thomas, became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport after finishing first in the 2022 women’s 500-yard freestyle event.
Mrs. Gaines-Barker later tied for fifth place with Thomas in the two hundred freestyle finals. Before winning the 2022 500-yard women’s freestyle championship – the pinnacle of Lia Thomas’ career as a male swimmer was finishing second in the men’s 500, 1,000, and 1,650-yard freestyle competitions at the 2019 Ivy League championships.
**********
Riley Gaines-Barker (L). Lia Thomas (aka William Thomas [R]). Image courtesy: Young Americans for Freedom.
A crowd of San Francisco State University (SFSU) transgender activists physically assaulted and threatened Riley Gaines-Barker after the former student-athlete gave a speech on “Saving Women’s Sports” on Thursday, April 6th, 2023.
Mrs. Gaines-Barker posted a video to Twitter/X on April 6th, showing a group of transgender activists following and yelling at her on the SFSU campus. An African American student in the video calls Gaines-Barker derogatory names while screaming, “Trans rights are human rights.”
Mrs. Gaines-Barker says before the video that she was “ambushed and physically hit twice by a man” after delivering her speech at a Turning Point USA and Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) Leadership Institute event. The IWF released the following press release after the physical attacks on Riley Gaines-Barker at SFSU:
“We strongly condemn the violence perpetrated against [IWF] spokeswoman Riley Gaines on the SFSU campus. Riley was violently accosted, ambushed, and physically assaulted during a speech on sex discrimination women face in their own single-sex sports category.”
**********
Clockwise, from upper left: Katherine Koonce, Mike Hill, Cynthia Peak, Hallie Scruggs, and Evelyn Dieckhaus. Images courtesy of The Covenant School/Covenant Presbyterian Church (Facebook), KMOV, and the Dieckhaus Family.
The incident at SFSU influenced Riley Gaines-Barker to become active in national conservative politics.
Mrs. Gaines-Barker began supporting Florida Governor Ron Desantis’ 2023-2024 campaign for the White House. Another motivating factor for Riley Gaines-Barker’s conservative activism was a horrific March 2023 assault rifle attack by a trans activist on the Covenant School – a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee. Two weeks before the transgender activists assaulted Mrs. Gaines-Barker at SFSU, Audrey Hale, aka Aiden Hale – murdered three children and three adults at the Covenant School.
Hale killed Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9 – Hallie Scruggs, 9 – William Kinney, 9 – Cynthia Peak, 61 – Katherine Koonce, 60 – and Mike Hill, 61, in the 2023 shooting. A protest of the unwillingness of the Republican-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives to do anything about gun violence propelled the shooting by Audrey Hale into the international news cycle.
Tennessee Representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson all faced expulsion votes after joining thousands of young high school and college students in protesting the legislature’s inability to take meaningful votes on gun control.
**********
Riley Gaines-Barker. The photo is courtesy of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF).
However, Johnson maintained her position while the legislative body expelled Jones and Pearson.
Because Johnson is Caucasian and Jones and Pearson are African American – the Representatives, local political activists, and the national media accused Republican legislature members of racism.
Riley Gaines-Barker and the IWF contend that silence from liberal feminists regarding the physical attack on the former Kentucky swimmer and the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to reclassify Title IX to include transgender athletes reveal that American feminism and the progressive movement have lost their way in the 21st century.
Sam Harris recently posted on Substack, “Do you think Elon continuously messaging to 200 million people on X, and going to Trump’s rallies, and donating over 100 million dollars to the campaign, and supporting him on podcasts, and doing everything else in his power to get Trump elected, might have accounted for a few votes?”