Riley Gaines

Riley Gaines is an American former collegiate swimmer from Gallatin, Tennessee. In 2022, while swimming for the University of Kentucky in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship, Gaines finished behind three cisgender competitors and tied for fifth place with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman who followed all rules to participate. Gaines has since lobbied against the inclusion of trans women in the women’s division of sports, been a frequent guest on right-wing media, travels nationwide for panels advocating against transgender people, and campaigned for anti-trans candidates for public office including Rand Paul, Ron DeSantis, Kim Reynolds, Daniel Cameron, and others.

—Appears in a video on the federal government web site for the HHS’s Office of Women’s Health touting anti-transgender policies enacted by President Trump. The webpage, titled “Protecting Women and Children,”  employs Trump’s narrow and scientifically baseless definition of sex and asserts that gender-affirming care is a form of child abuse. The department is promoting a rigid definition of sex that excludes transgender identities, falsely framing gender-affirming care as “chemical and surgical mutilation” and targeting trans inclusion in sports. In fact, every major medical association and leading world health authority supports health care for transgender people and youth. The site section titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” repeats far-right rhetoric used to justify bans on transgender women athletes. In the video Gaines says, “I am so grateful to see President Trump’s quick and decisive action to uphold his campaign promised to protect women athletes.” Gaines has not yet spoken out against President Trump being found liable for sexual abuse or for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., facing credible allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.

—At a speech at University of Wyoming, she “opened with allegations of an assault at San Francisco State University, made specific note that she was attacked by ‘men in dresses with beards’ and that she was apparently held ransom along with police officers until she gave the protestors $10.00 each.” Police say her claims are unfounded. 

—Said “I believe every single person is entitled—actually—I encourage every single person to play sports,” before suggesting that there is no category of competition that would permit transgender athletes: “I don’t think a third category (for transgender athletes) would suffice. Because at the end of the day, you would still very much have males competing against females.” 

—Sued the NCC with more than a dozen college athletes challenging the organization’s transgender eligibility policies, claiming they violate Title IX rights by adversely affecting female athletes. The lawsuit demands the NCAA revoke all awards given to trans athletes in women’s competitions and reassign them to their female contenders. 

—Declared a “Real Women’s Day” holiday on Oct. 10, 2023, chosen for the Roman numerals that denote the day: XX.

—Touring the country with her “Take Back Title IX” tour aimed at keeping transgender women out of women’s sports

—Held a ceremony for the Stone Ridge Christian High School girls volleyball team after they forfeited a playoff game because they refused to compete against a transgender athlete. 

—Riley Gaines is the director of The Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute. The Leadership Institute receives funding from several Koch family foundations, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (promotes anti-LGBTQ initiatives, including support for studies and campaigns that oppose LGBTQ rights particularly in the context of education and public policy), DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund (opposes LGBTQ rights and funds various organizations that push anti-LGBTQ agendas), the National Christian Charitable Foundation (opposes LGBTQ rights, particularly marriage equality and transgender rights), among others. The Leadership Institute president is co-founder of Council for National Policy (CNP), a secretive, Christian Right organization of funders and activists founded in 1981. Work with Moms for Liberty: The Leadership Institute and Moms for Liberty (M4L) organized a School Board Activist Workshop in January 2022, and Leadership Institute facilitated three M4L School Board Activism and Campaign Trainings in February 2022. Leadership Institute was the largest sponsor for M4L’s national summit in July of 2022, which included Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson as speakers. Leadership Institute was also a lead sponsor for M4L’s 2023 national summit, and oversaw trainings for attendees on candidate vetting, grassroots lobbying, communications, running for office, strategic research, vote goals, and media. M4L co-founder Bridget Ziegler stepped down from her position as director in spring of 2021, and was subsequently hired by Leadership Institute to serve as the Vice President of the School Board Leadership Program.

—Launched Project BOYcott campaign to “celebrate” female athletes who refuse to compete against transgender women and girls. 

—Repeatedly and falsely claims that trans women pose a sexual and physical threat to cisgender women, both in and out of the environment of athletics. In fact “transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime,” according to a study by the Williams Institute.

—Encouraged retaliation against libraries and library staff (including doxxing) that refused to allow speakers to misgender people, a violation of library policy. A bomb threat later forced evacuation of the library and an elementary school. 

—Campaigned for Kentucky anti-LGBTQ gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron who has focused his on targeting transgender youth, who make up an estimated 0.7% of Kentucky’s 13–17 population. Says Gaines in an ad: “This is Lia Thomas. He’s a male that claims he’s a woman … And this is trans-rights activist Andy Beshear. He vetoed legislation that would ban men from competing in women’s sports. And this is Daniel Cameron. He’s running against Andy Beshear. He’ll protect women and our sports.” 

—With her viral post (and those of Chaya Raichik who runs the far-right anti-LGBTQ hate account LibsofTikTok), fueled harassment of and violent threats against a transgender high school student in Missouri who was elected homecoming queen.

—Encouraged harassment of two high school athletes, both minors, who said they dropped out of competition out of fear for their safety. Riley misgendered them and accused them of cheating simply for competing with other women athletes.

—Compared the gender transition of transgender TikTok creator Dylan Mulvaney to blackface: “This is a man, a man with a fetish, who is gleefully putting together all the stereotypes of women.” 

—Lied about Pride merchandise at Target stores and attempted to associate it with satanism saying, “If you look at the children’s clothes in Target, they are targeting children. It’s sick, it’s perverse, it’s disgusting. And if you look up this person who they partnered with to do all the illustrations, this person is an open satanist. It’s criminal what they’re doing.” In fact, there was nothing criminal about the merchandise and none of the items bore satanic imagery, but images of UFOs and planets. 

—Appeared on Fox News 29 times, a total time of more than two hours and 38 minutes, between April 2022 and the end of May 2023. She has recently expanded on her platform spreading misinformation about transgender people in sports to include falsehoods about transgender people’s existence and safety in society, according to Media Matters.

—Participated in a “Panel on Transgenderism” at the annual CPAC conference. Gaines alleged that trans inclusion in women’s athletics is just one part of a widespread attempt to “eradicate women as a whole,” a conspiracy theory. As noted in the GLAAD Guide to Anti-LGBTQ Online Hate and Disinformation, the current usage of “transgenderism” as a term arises from anti-trans extremists and is crafted to delegitimize and dehumanize trans people by implying that being trans is an ideology rather than an identity.