Riley Gaines holds ceremony for girls volleyball players who refused to play trans opponent
Riley Gaines held a ceremony for the Stone Ridge Christian High School girls volleyball team weeks after forfeiting a playoff game that would have featured a trans athlete.
Former NCAA swimmer and OutKick contributor Riley Gaines honored the Stone Ridge Christian High School girls volleyball team in California for forfeiting a playoff game that would have featured a trans athlete.
Gaines held a ceremony for the team at its own gymnasium and shared her own story about having to compete against and share a locker room with trans athlete Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA women's swimming championships.
"We knew having a man undressing next to us in the locker room, standing at six foot four, we knew that was wrong," Gaines said. "We knew the silencing that we were facing from our universities, our institutions, how really, they effectively silenced us, muzzled us. We knew all of that was wrong. But none of us, including myself, had the courage that these girls on this court today had."
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Stone Ridge Christian High School, located in Merced, was set to play San Francisco Waldorf in the Northern California Division 6 tournament back in November. However, Stone Ridge announced it would not play that game just before it was set to be played, citing the presence of a trans athlete on the team.
"At SRC, we believe God’s Word is authoritative and infallible. It is Truth. And as Genesis makes clear, God wonderfully and immutable created each person as male or female. We do not believe sex is changeable and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message. We also have a duty and responsibility to care for the health and safety of our athletes. So after consulting with our students, coaches and staff, we have made the difficult decision to forfeit Saturday’s game. Standing for Biblical truth means more than the outcome of a game," the statement read.
The player who was referenced is reportedly a three-sport athlete who led San Francisco Waldorf to a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) North Coast Championship last season. The CIF enacted "gender identity participation" rules in 2013.
Transgender athletes in girls high school sports, and the subsequent opposition, have become a statewide issue in California this year.
Another trans volleyball player at Half Moon Bay High School prompted the Catholic school Notre Dame Belmont to forfeit a matchup earlier this season, but they chose to play the rematch. That rematch reportedly included booing of the trans athlete. Notre Dame Belmont was then told it could face "consequences" for the decision of students to boo.
A recent lawsuit by female athletes at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, has alleged that their "Save Girls Sports" T-shirts were likened to a swastika by school officials. The plaintiffs had worn the shirts after a transgender athlete, who had not consistently attended practices or met key varsity eligibility requirements, was placed on the varsity team, displacing one of the girls from her spot, the complaint alleged.
Gaines, at a Trump campaign rally on Oct. 23, shared her harrowing recollection of her experience being forced to share a locker room with Thomas.
"I could share the grotesque details of what it was like being forced to undress, inches away from a 6-foot-4 man who watched us strip down to nothing, while he did the same, exposing his fully-intact naked male body," Gaines said. "There are no words to describe the violation and the betrayal, the humiliation that we felt."
Gaines leads a lawsuit against the NCAA with other female athletes, accusing the governing body of violating their Title IX rights due to its policies on gender identity.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, details the shock Gaines and other swimmers felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with Thomas at the 2022 championships in Atlanta. It documents a number of races they swam with Thomas, including the 200-yard final in which Thomas and Gaines tied for fifth but Thomas, not Gaines, was handed the fifth-place trophy.
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