12-time NCAA All-American swimmer Riley Gaines joined the Network of enlightened Women’s University of Cincinnati and Xavier University chapters to share her story. Gaines described her swimming career, including her performance at the 2022 NCAA Championships, where she tied to the one-hundredth of a second with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200-meter freestyle event. Thomas, a biological man, took home the fifth-place trophy from the women’s event. This instance blatantly displayed women being excluded from their own space. In the years since, more women’s sports, women’s beauty pageants, and even women’s prisons have been infiltrated by men who think womanhood is a costume.

This moment would prove pivotal for Gaines, as a woman who dedicated 18 years of her life to swimming and became one of the fastest Americans of all time. After tying with Thomas and being told that Gaines would not receive the fifth-place trophy, Gaines replied, asking, “Isn’t this everything that Title IX was passed to prevent from happening?” The NCAA official apologized and stated that, in photos, it was “crucial” for the trophy to be in Thomas’ hands. Gaines was asked to stand down and step aside to “validate the feelings and the identity of a man” for a photo opportunity.

Gaines discussed how the University of Kentucky discouraged her from speaking out about the unfairness she experienced, facilitated by the NCAA. She was warned that she would lose her lifelong friends and not be accepted to dental school, nor would she ever be hired by any company if she called attention to this issue. Thankfully, this attempt at silencing Gaines was unsuccessful. She articulated the violation and betrayal she felt after having to share a locker room with Thomas during the NCAA Championships. Thomas’ teammates at the University of Pennsylvania had to do so 18 times a week. These young women deserved to be considered and heard, and Gaines was no longer willing to wait for someone else to stand up for girls and women in sports.

As a Christian, Gaines draws motivation from her faith in her pursuit to protect Title IX. She emphasized, “it is not compassionate to ask a young girl to undress next to a grown man.” The threat of men overtaking women’s spaces is our present reality. Despite this, Gaines remains hopeful. She finds truth in the fact that “God created the only distinction we will ever need when He created man and woman.” Her advice to the audience was to “stop playing their game.” Why should we say “biological” man or woman? Gaines believes doing so is “the first step to admitting there is a biological  alternative to being a man or a woman.” There is not.

The issue of men in women’s sports should matter to everyone. If you are a man, consider the women in your life. How would you feel if your daughter was expected to share a locker room with a man? To fellow women, I ask, how would you feel walking into a women’s restroom and seeing a man in what is supposed to be your private space? What if this happened to your mother or your best friend? The truth is that men in women’s sports do not stop at sports. It has spread and continues to in many other facets of life. This is an issue we must be unshakeable on. Men are not women. XX does not equal XY. For the safety and dignity of our women, we must protect ourselves and each other and firmly declare that womanhood is not a costume.

This blog was written by NeW Ambassador Emily Johnson.