Riley Gaines Tells Senate Committee About Being Held Hostage for Three and a Half Hours at San Francisco State University
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Riley Gaines Tells Senate Committee About Being Held Hostage for Three and a Half Hours at San Francisco State University
Riley Gaines testified before a Senate committee about her harrowing experience at San Francisco State University, where protesters barricaded her in a room for over three hours and demanded ransom money for her safe release. The former NCAA swimmer detailed the threats and intimidation she has faced for advocating for women's sports, including being assaulted after speaking about competing against a biological male. Gaines also described the shock of finding a six-foot-four biological man in her locker room without warning, and how female athletes across the country are being silenced and threatened with severe consequences if they speak out about their experiences.
Riley Gaines provided powerful testimony before a Senate committee about the extreme intimidation and violence she has faced for advocating for women's sports. When questioned by a senator about a recent incident at San Francisco State University, Gaines described being held hostage for three and a half hours by hundreds of protesters who demanded she pay them money if she wanted to make it home safely to see her family.
The incident occurred just months before her testimony, when Gaines was invited to speak at the university. According to Gaines, law enforcement at the scene failed to effectively protect her. She stated that officers mentioned "it was not ideal for them to be seen as anything other than an ally to this community," which she believes was made obvious in their ineffective response to removing her safely from the dangerous situation.
The Violent Response to Sharing Her Experience
When asked what she had said that was so terrible to provoke such a response, Gaines explained she had simply been invited to speak about her experience during her senior year competing against a male athlete. She emphasized that her speech contained nothing opinionated, but rather was "the exact lived experience of what me and my teammates and fellow competitors dealt with."
While Gaines said she was fine with people protesting as that is their right, the situation turned violent after her speech. Protesters rushed into the room, turned off the lights, and rushed to the front. Gaines and others were assaulted, which led to her being held hostage for three and a half hours.
The Locker Room Experience
Gaines shared the traumatic details of discovering a biological male in her locker room during competition. She testified that she and her teammates only became aware they would be undressing next to a man when they had to see him undressing while they were simultaneously undressing. The women were given no warning or opportunity to consent to this situation.
Gaines immediately left the locker room and approached an official on the pool deck to ask about the guidelines that would allow a man into their locker room. The official nonchalantly responded that they had "gotten around this by making locker rooms unisex."
This response troubled Gaines on multiple levels. First, she noted that by acknowledging how they had to change the rules to make locker rooms unisex, the official was admitting this was indeed a male and acknowledging that the athletes did not share the same sex. Second, she realized that under unisex rules, any man could have walked into their locker room—any coach, any official, any man who wanted to would have had full access. Third, and perhaps most troubling to Gaines, was that the women weren't even forewarned about the change.
Gaines stated that while the experience in the locker room itself was traumatizing, what struck her most was "how easy it was for them to dismiss our rights to privacy."
What Message Does This Send to Women?
Responding to Senator Durbin's opening statement about what message rhetoric sends to trans individuals, Gaines countered with her own question: "What message does this send to women, to young girls who are denied of these opportunities so easily, their rights to privacy and safety thrown out of the window to protect a small population, protect one group as long as they're happy? What about us?"
Gaines said this question reflected "the overall general consensus of how we all felt in that locker room."
The Systematic Silencing of Female Athletes
When asked why the NCAA and so many people in power seem intent on erasing the opinions and views of women, Gaines pointed to a pattern of silencing female athletes. She referenced a message that Harvard had sent to swimmers telling them not to talk about Leah Thomas, not to share their opinions, and if contacted by a member of the media, to refer that contact to the university.
Gaines testified that this silencing is happening continually, and if women do speak up, they are "immediately labeled as some name—they will call you everything under the sun whether it's transphobic, homophobic, racist, white supremacist, domestic terrorist. They will throw them all at you in hopes to deter you and in hopes to silence you."
Emotional Blackmail at Universities
Gaines shared disturbing details about how Leah Thomas's teammates were treated at their university. According to her testimony, these female athletes were forced to attend mandatory LGBTQ education meetings every single week "to learn about how just by being, they were oppressing Leah Thomas."
The women were told multiple threatening things:
They are not allowed to take a stance because their school has already taken their stance for them
They will never get a job
They will never get into grad school
They will lose their friends
They will lose their scholarship and playing time if they speak out
Most disturbingly, Gaines testified that these young women were told that if they spoke out and any harm whatsoever came toward Thomas—whether through social media or physical, mental, or emotional harm—then they would be solely responsible and could be responsible for a potential death. The women were asked, "You don't want that, do you?"
Gaines characterized this as "emotional blackmail that is plaguing this country, especially in universities."
Responding to Accusations of Transphobia
When given the opportunity to respond to a public statement by Leah Thomas claiming that Gaines and others are "using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs," and that advocating for women's rights is actually just a cover for transphobia, Gaines had a clear response.
"Feminism is not a fluid term," Gaines stated. "The original and the meaning of what it means to be a feminist is to uphold, respect, honor, embrace and celebrate women on our own physical ceilings, our own uniqueness. That term has not changed."
She concluded her response by noting, "What this really is is a male mansplaining what it is to be a feminist, which I honestly think is pretty ironic, and it's something we've seen before."
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