Earlier this month, Utah Valley University’s TPUSA chapter hosted women’s advocate Riley Gaines, who shared her experiences as a woman forced to compete against a male in college sports. Gaines sat down for an exclusive interview with the Cougar Chronicle; the transcript is shared below and is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Q: What are your thoughts on Governor Cox’s recent support for the young women in Utah colleges refusing to compete against a male transgender athlete?
A: “I’m someone who has been quite critical of Spencer Cox…he’s a bit squishy. But I was pleased to see how he’s corrected course and is celebrating these girls because that’s what they deserve. They deserve celebration for their courage and leadership and for doing what the adults–whose job was to protect them–wouldn’t do.”
Q: Do you think he’s showing a genuine change in attitude, or could this be pandering for the upcoming election?
A: “I believe it was strategic, in a sense, but I can only hope that if he’s reelected… we will see some other actions, like signing the Women’s Bill of Rights. We’ve seen several others sign this, and I think it’s a great way to protect women and their spaces, and their right to privacy.”
Q: They say courage is a habit; how did you first form the habit, and how has your experience been since speaking up publicly?
A: “I think that initial leap of faith is by far the scariest. But since taking that step and being thrust into this movement, I’ve been overwhelmed with support… Of course, it comes with backlash, which was really hard at first. But I realized pretty early on that the naysayers weren’t actually refuting what I was saying with logic or reasoning; they were just name-calling. I’m able to take the arrows pretty easily now and say, unapologetically and firmly, “There are two sexes. You can’t change your sex, and each sex is deserving of equal opportunities, privacy, and safety.”
Q: Have you found that people thank you for what you’re doing but say they’re too scared to do this work themselves?
A: “All the time.”
Q: If you could speak to these people candidly, what would you say to them? What do you wish they would consider?
A: “Where do you draw the line? People frequently say to me, ‘This is happening to my daughter at school; I can’t say anything because I have a corporate job, but can you say something?’ The president of the NCAA stated publicly that he stands by his decision on this issue, but privately, he tells me to keep pushing and fighting, as if he isn’t the one I’m fighting… I understand that livelihoods can often be at risk when you speak up. But ask yourself: is that a job you even want to have if they police you to the point that you’re willing to become morally bankrupt and a total coward? So, my message to them is that it’s worth it 10 times out of 10 to speak the truth, especially this truth. If we can’t acknowledge that, then there are no limits to what we can be coerced to say.”
Q: The first official government act that led to this situation was a “Dear Colleague” letter from Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Education, informing college and school officials that the Administration would interpret Title IX to include gender identity in the list of protected categories. The Biden administration has ‘updated’ the definition of gender vs. sex under Title IX, but Congress has never passed a law on the matter; there are only these administrative actions. Are there any members of Congress that you know of who are willing to introduce a bill to re-clarify the word “sex” to mean biological sex at birth?
A: “I have been working extensively on this; in fact, I would love to see Spencer Cox sign something like this that merely codifies sex-based terms, like male/female, even the word “sex” itself. It’s absurd that we have to, but we’ve seen this pass in 9 states. The governors of Nebraska, Oklahoma, Idaho, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, all have taken action. At the federal level, it has been undertaken by Debbie Lesko and Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee. They have a ton of co-sponsors who have signed on, like Utah’s Burgess Owens, who is really fantastic. What we are seeing from the Biden/Harris administration–and what we could certainly expect if, God forbid, we have a Harris/Walz administration–is the most anti-woman policy we have experienced thus far, saying that sex is equivalent to gender identity. It is incredibly harmful, not just to female athletes but to men and humanity as a whole. So, to codify this, to make sure it’s very clear in statute, is absolutely a critical piece of legislation, and something I would love to see pushed forward. Hopefully, we get more members in the House, win back the Senate, and have a president in the White House who will sign this into effect on Day 1.”
Q: What would your official call to action be tonight?
A: “It’s the easiest thing in the world to say what I’m saying; it doesn’t require any sort of profound wisdom; a person with any sort of demographic profile can experience this. It’s going to take every single one of us pushing back to ultimately win on this issue… We’re a great nation because of the great sacrifices made by our Founding Fathers. But now, those freedoms are under threat: the First Amendment, the Second Amendment. It’s a telltale sign of where we are as a society and the kind of leaders we have. If everybody spoke out about this instead of letting fear silence them, this fight would have been over yesterday.”
Written by: Emma Wilson
Contributor at the Cougar Chronicle
The Cougar Chronicle is an independent student-run newspaper and is not affiliated with Brigham Young University or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
