Good evening my name is Dr Eric Turner I’m the chair of our Christian Studies division here and I help direct our free Society programming here on campus at hlgu you might ask what is the free Society program and our free Society lecture series we focus in this series
On three foundations of what we consider are important to a free Society uh free market economics democratic form of government and cultural institutions like the church the speakers we bring to campus and the events that we host try to emphasize Concepts not only with these within these three foundations but
Viewing them through a lens of a Biblical World viiew which is Central to our mission and is one of our core values here at Hannibal lrange University it’s it’s my privilege tonight to introduce to you Riley gains she is a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer and she’s the director of the
Riley gains Center she’s also a leader in defending women’s single sex spaces advocating for equality and fairness standing up for women’s safety privacy and equal opportunities if you’d like more information on Riley gains and the Riley gain Center you can visit her website at Riley gain center.org she’ll
Be speaking to us here just momentarily and then after she speaks to us we’re going to have a time for open question and answer sessions at the ends at the end but now would you give me uh the privilege of welcoming and giving a great handful of GRA University Welcome to Riley [Applause]
Gains thank you you guys are so sweet oh my gosh let me just tell you I am mad that I did not go to school here uh this place rocks I have had really just the greatest day walking around and getting to meet so many uh students and female
Athletes and of course the staff um I have proposed that Hannibal lrange starts a swim team uh I think I have like a fifth year of Eligibility because of covid so just saying um but but really this place is special uh I have not felt uh on any of the college
Campuses I’ve gone really any place I’ve gone uh the amount of support and encouragement and really just the amount of Christlike character oozing from so many which is really powerful coming from so many young people so uh again couldn’t be more grateful and like I said the female athletes here I got to
Spend some some time with volleyball and basketball and softball and track and field and cross country uh even two of the cheer captains today so it was pretty amazing I know it’s Ivy’s birthday who’s on the basketball team so maybe we should like all sing to
Ivy but I’m not going to start because I’m on a microphone and no one wants to hear me sing because their ears will probably bleed um but happy birthday to Ivy um but oh my gosh uh just I felt very welcomed certainly more than I felt before Congress a few months
Back it is unfathomable to me that a 23-year-old recent college graduate college swimmer at that has to go to DC to sit in front of Congress the Beating Heart of the American Republic and explain to them that men and women are different and then to be on the other
Side of the table and watch as they have these really confused looks on their faces um some of you may have seen the clip but the hearing that I was there to testify in support of uh was about upholding Title Nine and urging the Biden Administration to Halt with their
Illegal administrative rewrite of Title Nine so I’m I’m sitting there uh ranking member Lee She’s the Democrat representative from Pennsylvania she starts to read her opening monologue and the first words that come out of her mouth she says I can’t believe that I’m forced to sit here and
Listen to this transphobic bigotry which I mean really I I felt heartbroken in that moment um more so than any other emotion more than anger more than frustration I felt heartbroken because again a a sitting member of Congress resorts to name calling a 23-year-old girl who who’s merely advocating for
Fair play um and so it’s it’s my turn to read my testimony and so I read and it was entirely adlib and my poor husband and my poor parents have always had this mouth on me and so at the end of my testimony uh um I look at at
Representative Lee and I said ranking member Lee if my opening testimony makes me transphobic then by your own logic your opening monologue makes you a misogynist um it was pretty funny actually it was pretty funny the hearing uh went into a tail spin she essentially had to like factory reset it was like
She didn’t actually know what this word misogynist meant I think she had to sit back there and look it up for a second because maybe two minutes later she raised her hand and she said I want her words removed from the record uh which let it be known Congressional records still stands and
She is in fact still a misogynist uh it’s actually on her Wikipedia page and no I didn’t write it but someone sent it to me and that’s awesome um and I certainly feel more more welcome here at H lrange uh than I did a few months back at at San Francisco State University
Uh which that was my first mistake going to San Francisco um but really I went there to deliver a very similar talk um nothing nothing crazy again merely saying that men and women are different and we deserve to be celebrated uh on these differences that we have especially in sports and upon going
There uh I was met with vitriol um speaking in a room like this uh protesters rushed in uh they this was obviously coordinated they rushed in they turned off the lights uh rushed to the front started punching me and and hitting me and pushing me and shoving me
And jostling me uh which fortunately for me men and dresses their punches don’t actually hurt that bad um but but really I mean they they held me for ransom through the night uh they held me and barricaded me in this room for for hours on end where they demanded
That if if I wanted to make it home to see my family safely again I had to pay them money um you might be wondering you know where are the police guys it’s San Francisco the police are being held for ransom with me uh they’re in this room
And you know I’m looking at the officers uh pretty sure we’re being held against our will pretty sure we call that kidnapping isn’t there something you can do about this isn’t it your job to do something to which they responded with uh no uh actually we can’t do
Anything uh they told me word for word they said we’re not allowed to be seen as anything other than an ally to this community or else we’ll lose our jobs so we’ll just wait it out is what they said uh but ultimately the DEA students shows
Up middle of the night to to kind of negotiate with these students how to let me go and what they agreed upon is I had to pay them each $10 uh which makes me kind of mad because I think I’m worth more than $10 um but there was a on a protester so
Really I’m I’m maybe that was a fair price um the next day very briefly I’ll touch on this the next day the vice president of student affairs and I was explaining this to the female the the female athletes here earlier the vice president of student affairs at the University sent out a university-wide
Email the next morning after it had gotten national attention of what these students had done to me uh and the email said we are so proud of our brave students for handling Riley gains in the manner that they did uh we know how deeply traumatic her presence
Is on our campus and so here are some counseling resources for you guys uh please take the day off of school know that we love you we see you we hear you and we stand with you uh yeah which is is pretty appalling so all of that to say I could
Not be more glad to be in this room um but I figured I would just share a little bit about uh the how of of how I got here I’m sure some of you are are are maybe relatively familiar with the story uh I was uh I graduated from
University of Kentucky last year where I got my degree in human health sciences and health law uh and I had every intention upon graduating actually to go to dental school uh to pursue and specialize in indid donics i’ had taken the DAT which is this really miserable
4H hourong test to get into dental school which Believe It or Not covers biology uh and and chemistry and organic chemistry and math and reading and all the things and so I had scored in the top percentile nationally um I put my deposit down into dental school I
Accepted my seat I was ready to go um also just after graduating I’d married my really cute 6’4 British husband who now living in Nashville has this like awesome Southern British accent um but I say that to say it would have been really easy for me to essentially ride
Off into the sunset with the plans that I had made for me the very safe and secure plans that I had made for me but I realized that the quickest way to make God laugh in your face is to make plans for yourself uh because he very clearly had different plans for me
And you know being an athlete you set goals and you work to achieve those goals and so I felt like I’d set this goal of becoming a dentist an indid onist uh and I felt like veering from that path I was kind of abandoning this
Goal I had set a goal I’d been working for of course my four years of college but even even longer than that and so I was trying to find ways to justify uh abandoning this goal uh and now I justify God’s calling by saying I’m still working on getting to the root of
The problem coming out of people’s mouths uh so it’s it’s basically still a root canal uh and it’s probably just as painful as one so uh but a little bit about my swimming uh I very proudly finished my career at University of Kentucky as a 12-time NCAA All-American
Um a five-time sec Champion actually still the SEC record holder in the 200 butterfly making me uh one of the fastest Americans of all time uh also making me have very large shoulders uh two-time Olympic trial qualifier SEC scholar athlete of the Year FCC a community service leader of the year um
But that to say it’s a lifelong journey to get to that point um to compete and ultimately be successful at the highest level I started swimming when I was four graduated when I was 22 so 18 years of my life I spent dedicated to my sport uh
The athletes in the room know this the parents in the room who have athletes know this the amount of time and dedication and sacrifices that you have to make make uh you can’t put it into words of course in high school you don’t get to go to prom because guess what you
Have practice that Friday night and you don’t get to to have sleepovers on Friday because guess what you have practice at 6 am on Saturday morning and forget going on family vacations because God forbid you took a week out of the water uh so the sacrifices um are
Immeasurable but I was very fortunate to be pretty heavily recruited truth be told not here by Hannibal L grain because you don’t have a swim team yet um but very fortunate to be pretty heavily recruited uh truth be told I could have gone anywhere in the country
That I wanted to swim but I’m biased and I’m sorry the SEC is the best conference uh yeah I heard some Woos and some hey I like this place uh I knew I wanted to stay in the SEC uh my mom and my dad was an SEC athlete uh playing football my mom
Played softball I knew I wanted to play in the SEC and so start taking my trips uh was not interested in University of Kentucky to be totally honest with you uh it’s not a school that screams swimming uh the only thing I thought of when I thought of Kentucky was
Truthfully meth and Mountain Dew neither of which I was interested in uh still not interested in um but I took a trip there and really I fell in love I fell in love with the campus I fell in love with the team and the coaches and and the resources that they
Poured into us outside of even just Athletics helping us be better students and better Community me members and and better people so I ended up going there um and I thought I worked hard before uh I was wrong this was a different kind of working hard uh we were in the water
Every single day for six hours uh you know you practice for three hours from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. you go to class you come back you practice again from 1:30 to 4:30 we ate dinner at at old people time a 4:45 because we were starving uh do your homework ice your
Shoulder go to bed wake up do it all again the next day we swam about 15,000 yards every day which is about equivalent to 10ish Miles every day uh which is um certainly a LoveHate relationship with the sport um but I’ll kind of Flash Forward freshman year uh I
Was improving I was um you know slightly getting better but this was an acclamation period so sophomore year rolls around and I’m I’m really having this breakout season and uh it’s March of 2020 about three days before we supposed to leave for our national championships which is the Pinnacle of
Your collegiate career uh really it’s more it’s comparative to the Olympics it’s really faster than the Olympics because of how many incredible swimmers that the US has so we’re gearing up ready to go I’m seated to do very well at this meet uh three days before we
Leave our coaches uh pull us out of the water take us back to the team room sat us down and they said uh if you live in the dorm rooms you have to pack your stuff up and leave campus tonight um of course covid had hit and at the time we
Didn’t really know what this meant there was a lot of uncertainty around this we thought we’d go home for for maybe the week come back the next week we didn’t know so upon being told I got to go home I’m like oh my gosh yes this is so
Exciting I never get to go home uh we were at campus all summer all you don’t get to come home for Christmas or Thanksgiving you got one week off in August each year so to be told mid-march you got to go home super excited uh but that excitement lasted
For 24 hours before we realized what this meant because upon going back home there were no pools open uh there were no gyms open nowhere to to continue improving which swimming is one of those Sports where uh like I said you don’t get to take time out of the water
Unfortunately we don’t have gills uh we haven’t adapted to be um well suited in water and so I had no other choice really if I wanted to continue this breakout season into my junior year that I was having my sophomore year um I put on a wet suit every single day and I
Swam miles aimlessly in the lake um I had this little route where I’d jump in the boat dock and and swim down by Johnny Cash’s house and come back and I did it every day um and the amount of snakes that swam by me or like dead catfish
That are floating on top of the water that hit you in your face uh it’s certainly not pleasant but again I was willing to do this um junior year finally comes back around outside of dealing with the covid theatrics which I’ll be the first to say that being a college athlete during this
Time was pretty miserable to say the least um not even just a college athlete I would say being a college student during this time was pretty hard um with the social distancing and The Mask mandates and the mandatory vaccines and contact tracing and all these different rules and
Regulations um which how many of you have seen a swimmer in the water wearing a mask no but they certainly tried um anyways my junior year this was the first year that I won an individual SEC title uh this is the first year University of Kentucky when it’s first
Ever team title in program history and ultimately I had ended up concluding my J junior year placing seventh in the country which I was proud of uh it wasn’t a best time I had gone so it wasn’t a phenomenal swim on my behalf but you know you’re top eight you’re
All-American uh it’s a pretty high honor so I was proud of this but I knew right then and there when I placed seventh that my senior year I had a goal of winning a national title which would of course mean becoming the fastest woman in my respective event in the country
And so senior year rolls around and I’m right on Pace to achieve this goal uh I was ranked third in the nation about halfway through my senior year behind one incredible female swimmer who I knew very well uh because like in most sports you know your top tier athletes you know
Of each other regardless of where you compete because you’ve grown up competing against each other so I was trailing her by a few 100s of a second but the swimmer who was leading the nation by Body links might I add was a summer that none of us had ever heard of before
Not myself not my teammates not my coaches and this is the first time we became aware of a summer named Leah Thomas and so there was a lot of red flags at the time uh keep in mind we hadn’t seen a photo of this swimmer or else things maybe would have been a
Little more clear but for all I knew at the time this was a senior from University of Pennsylvania which is not a school that historically produced produces fast swimmers and now I would argue is not a school that historically produces anything good uh certainly not Prestige like they like to claim so if
You got your degree from there uh Return to Sender um but a senior from University of Pennsylvania uh again leading the nation by Body links and events ranging from the hundred freestyle which is of course a Sprint event and all of the freestyle events in between through the mile which is long
Distance and for those of you who who might not necessarily understand the sport of swimming think about this in terms of your Olympic Runners right that’s like saying your best 200 meter Runner is your best marathon runner that doesn’t happen they’re two totally different systems but that’s what we
Were seeing in this person so again lots of heads scratching who is this uh and we continued to stay in the dark until an article came out and in this article it very briefly disclosed that Leah Thomas is formerly will Thomas and swam three years on the men’s team at
University of Pennsylvania before deciding to switch to the women’s team and so my my coach he actually sent me the link to the article you know he knew my goals he saw how hard I worked day in and day out he said you need to read
This and so of course I read it and I like read it again and then a third time to make sure like my eyes weren’t deceiving me uh and upon reading it of course I was shocked we all were uh but really I felt this sense of
Relief you know was kind of like oh makes sense and at this point I went to look up who will Thomas was because admittedly I was curious you know was this a lateral movement uh was this someone who went from ranking amongst the best of the men to now continuing to
Rank amongst the best of the women which is of course not what we saw uh we saw this was a very mediocre man ranked 462nd in the nation the year prior when competing against the men uh to again now dominating not just number one dominating the entire country of women uh but
Ultimately that’s why I say I felt relieved because it was very clear this wasn’t a lateral movement you know I thought the NCAA would see it how I saw it and how my teammates saw it and how my coaches saw it and how my family saw
It and how anyone with any amount of brain activity would probably comprehend this and look nothing hateful about it nothing even opinionated about it the the sheer facts on the paper in front of us um 462nd to dominating uh but the NCAA did not see it that way they saw absolutely nothing
Wrong with this and so about three weeks before our national championships in March of 2022 they announced that Leah Thomas’s participation in the woman’s category was a non-negotiable meaning of course course there was nothing that we could do there was no questions that we could ask or concerns that we could
Raise uh we were told that we had to to accept this with a smile on our face and so I got to personally witness and really feel the effect that this infringement or how I would describe it that this how this Injustice affected us and and myself and my teammates and my competitors
And look I don’t claim to speak for every single girl on that pool deck of course not but I do claim to speak for the overwhelming majority of us because I I mean I can wholeheartedly attest to the tears that I saw not just from the moms and the SS watching as their
Daughters are being obliterated in the sport that they once loved but the tears from the girls who placed 9th and 17th and missed out on being named an All-American by one place and I can wholeheartedly attest to the extreme discomfort in the locker room when you
Turn around and there’s a 6’4 22y old man fully intact with and exposing male genitalia inches away from where you were simultaneously undressed and I can wholeheartedly attest to The Whispers because that’s what they were they were Whispers of anger and frustration from these girls who just like myself had
Worked our entire lives to get to this meet and so that first day of competition was the 500 freestyle uh which is not an event that I do and so I watched on the side of the pool as Thomas swam to a national title um beating out Olympians beating out
American record holders these aren’t scrubs they’re the most impressive female swimmers this world has ever seen and Thomas beat them all by Body links one second might not sound like a lot of time but in swimming a sport that’s measured down to the hundredth of a second one second is
Significant Thomas beat the entire nation of women by two full seconds and even the time Thomas went last year would have beat every girl in the country this year by two full seconds uh so he became the first man to win a division one NCAA Women’s title Trailblazer
Um but the second day of competition was the 200 freestyle which is the event that Thomas and I competed against each other in and so we get on the blocks and we dive off and we swim eight laps of freestyle and we touch the wall at the
End and I look up at the scoreboard and almost impossibly enough we had gone the exact same time down to the hundredth of a second meaning of course we tied which is pretty rare you know when you’re Racing for a minute and 40 seconds and not even one 100th
Separated us you can’t tell me that’s not divine intervention and so we get out of the water and then we go behind the awards Podium where the NCAA official looks at both Thomas and myself Thomas who again is towering over me at 6’4 and this official says great job you
Two uh but you tied and we only have one trophy so we’re gonna give the trophy to Leah sorry Riley you don’t get one my heart rate was still high uh my adrenaline was still pumping and remember I have that mouth on me uh and so the first thing that I thought
Actually was the first thing that I said and my first thought was isn’t this everything that title 9 was passed to prevent from happening you know I asked the question no one dared ask all season actually we asked it we asked it in secrecy in Whispers behind closed doors
So others couldn’t hear us but I said why why are you adamant on giving the trophy to a man in the women’s 200 freestyle he this poor official uh he did not know how to answer this question uh they did not give him a script of
What to say when someone asked why and so he’s uh stumbling on his words and he’s uh well uh we we just did this in chronological order and I said okay uh do you mean alphabetical because G comes before T otherwise I’m I’m not too clear what you’re being chronological about we
Tied and at this point he realized he didn’t have a justification and he looked at me and I could tell he didn’t even believe what he was about to say he looked sad his eyes changed his voice changed and he said Riley I am so sorry but we have been advised that when
Photos are being taken it’s crucial that the trophy is in Leah’s hands again you can pose with this one but you have to give yours back Leah takes the trophy home you go home empty-handed end of story story that was all I needed to hear um
Really up until this point of course I mean of course we all knew the unfair competition was wrong we knew the locker room aspect was wrong we knew the silencing that we were facing from our universities we knew all that was wrong but it wasn’t until this official
Reduced everything that we had worked our entire lives for down to a photo op to validate the feelings and the identity of a of a man at the expense of our own uh that’s when I was I was no longer willing to to cower truthfully and lie uh up until this
Point I was waiting for someone else because I thought someone else would say something I thought surely a coach would surely someone from the NCAA someone with political power someone some other swimmer someone’s dad quite honestly would come down there and yank this man out of our locker rooms
But I realized in that moment I remember distinctly it’s like it slapped me across the face uh standing on that Podium holding a trophy I know I have to give back sharing my spot with a man towering over me it hit me and all the while I’m smiling all the while I’m
Clapping like we were being told to um it hit me what in the world were we applauding we were applauding our own eraser our own Demolition and in that moment um I remember thinking to myself how in the world can we as as women as female athletes expect someone to stand up for
Us if we weren’t even willing to stand up for ourselves this has to come from us um so that on top of the locker room which if I had to to see it you guys at least have to hear about it um you guys are the show me state aren’t
You I won’t go that far um this is a Christian University and God is watching um but but really uh that that experience is nothing short of I mean traumatic I think is the best way to describe it um to be in a in an a place
That I would argue is not comfortable at any point in time um where you’re undressing fully exposed you have your back turned totally unbeknownst to you you hear a man’s voice in that locker room it was inherent to cover yourself whether that be with your towel or your
Clothes or or your swimsuit or your hands whatever it might be it was it was a a common reaction from the girls in the locker room of course it’s awkward it’s embarrassing it’s uncomfortable uh but really the way to describe it is an utter violation and feelings of
Betrayal um and like I said traumatizing but not even necessarily traumatizing because of what what we were forced to see or how we were forcibly exploited it was traumatizing for me to know just how easy it was um for these people who created these policies to totally dismiss our rights to privacy
Without even a second thought again without even bare minimum for warning us um and the other aspect of this that that really pushed me over the edge as I said was the intimidation factors that that we saw from our universities to keep us quiet um I would argue that Academia I mean
Really it’s everywhere Corporate America um Academia our government our media uh we’re even seeing a shift in churches um the medical profession the list goes on um it’s been kind of fun actually to watch the dismantling a of a lot of these highered institutions uh like I
Said about upin Harvard MIT there’s a lot more of that to go but you guys are lucky here I don’t think there’s a lot of expose that needs to happen at Hannibal lrange this place rocks um but our institutions I specifically was told you’ll never get a job if you speak out
About this you know your employer will look you up and they’ll see that you’re a trans phobe and you don’t want that do you you’ll never get into grad school uh you’ll lose your friends you’ll lose your scholarship and your playing time they sat me down and said Riley remember
You signed a scholarship and when you sign that letter of intent you gave away your rights to speak in your own personal capacity remember whose name you wear across your chest and across your cap because it’s not your own it’s ours and we’ve already taken your stance for you um Thomas’s teammates
16 of these girls uh plus their parents signed on to an email expressing their discomfort in the locker room keep in mind I only had a week of undressing in the same locker room as Thomas these girls had to do it 18 times every single week um for the whole
Season uh they signed on to this email expressing their discomfort um to upen and I swear I have a screenshot of the response upen responded back with if you feel uncomfortable seeing male genitalia here are some counseling resources that you should seek in an attempt to re-educate
Yourselves they even went as far to tell these girls that if you do speak out and any harm whatsoever comes to towards Thomas’s way whatever that harm may be then you’re solely responsible and that would make you responsible for a potential death and you don’t want to be
A murderer do you so I suggest you be kind and I suggest you be inclusive I mean think about that they equated advocating for fair play and privacy in areas of undressing to being a murderer they told these girls they would have blood on their hands if they
Spoke out and believe it or not that’s effective in keeping 20-year-old girls quiet um so again that’s the how the how I I got here but I think more importantly and really something that we should all be asking ourselves is the why why is this happening why do we care
So fiercely and so passionately about defending it and as a Christian myself um I feel very certain and confident in answering the question as to why this is happening uh because the Bible tells us why this is happening um I had talked with the girls today and I told them look Paul warned
Us several times throughout the Bible that these spiritual battles in Acts and Romans in different places that these spiritual battles will intensify and that we will reach a point where bitter is seen as sweet and dark is seen as light and evil is seen as moral it’s undeniable that that’s not where we’re
At now it’s no longer longer a battle of good versus bad or right versus wrong it really is a battle of evil versus moral and of course that’s not to say that that people who identify as trans or or struggling with their own identity that’s not to say that they’re evil of
Course not but deception is that’s evil Temptation and manipulation and affirming lies and delusions that’s evil and who does that sound like that’s how Satan moves that’s how he works works is through deception and Temptation and manipulation that’s what’s evil um it’s very clear that these worldly battles
We’re seeing Are Spiritual uh it’s no doubt spiritual warfare and we live in a time where the world tells us you know look Live Your Truth No it’s obey the Lord your God or or follow your heart no it’s your heart needs to be renewed in
Jesus Christ and it’s you do you no again obey the Lord um it’s uh I think from a a worldly perspective though and asking the question of why the premise of this and again why I care because it’s a lot more than the trophy that I didn’t get to take home
Keep in mind I’m a 12 time All-American I could have cared less about that stupid $5 production trophy it’s not about the trophy um but it’s a lot bigger than that I think the premise is that we’re denying objective truth we’re denying biblical truth um and the way
That God created man and woman and when we deny that it’s as if we’re denying that the sky is blue it’s as if we’re saying 2 plus two is five and I’ve got news for you if any of you had to read 1984 for school like
I did because who would ever really read that book on their own don’t lie and say you did um if you’ve read the book and you’ve read the ending of that book then it’s clear the direction that we’re headed in and not just the denial of truth it’s even the shift in
Language uh in the book they talk about news speak and group think but really it’s no longer woman that’s way too controversial it’s cervix H or uterus owner or ministrator or bleeder or chest feeder or pregnant person or birthing people or whatever other derogatory term they can come up with that reduces women
Down to their biological functions um even this idea of using the word the phrase biological female I think is so silly uh because think about it female is already a word rooted in science first and foremost as is male so when we add that word biological it’s the most subtle way we
Don’t even know we’re doing it but we’re subconsciously admitting there’s an unbiological alternative to being a female or a male or a girl or a boy or a man or a woman or a mother or a father and there’s not um even again just to to
Warn you to be mindful of language and and to help you understand how powerful language is even the verbiage of of sex reassignment surgery or or or something to that effect it’s so powerful and we don’t even know it but when we say that we’re subconsciously admitting that that
You can reassign your sex and you can’t it’s inate God created us perfect In His Image and we can’t change that um so be mindful of language so again the denial of Truth the shifting of language the breakdown of faith we used to be a country that proudly said in God we
Trust and one nation under God the breakdown of family the breakdown of our freedom such as the freedom of speech the praying on vulnerable populations um the the propaganda being pushed in the media if you lay these different pieces out uh it’s very obvious what this means
If you have the slightest bit of understanding of History um it points directly in the direction of Marxism and talk to someone from North Korea I know you guys had Yan me Park here who’s just incredible she was here last year I believe um she’s amazing and to listen to her experience
Of what she faced in North Korea um it’s it’s becoming clear by the day that that’s that’s the slippery slope that we’re on here in this nation Cuba China Russia Germany Brazil Venezuela talk to people from these countries and they’ll tell you what we’re going through um by the hands and
Feet of our own leaders might I add that are taking us down this slippery slope um which sounds grim and it sounds chilling and I’m not here to like Doomsday you guys and scare you uh because it’s not scary because we already know who wins the battle the War uh correction really we
Already know who has won the war uh which is the most beautiful thought U really so uh I’ll briefly talk about the impact that’s been had because Miss Missouri you guys have been a really out in front on this issue uh you have a phenomenal attorney general here in the
State uh who I believe will be speaking here I don’t know if that’s a secret but if it is sorry I totally ruined it um who will be speaking here I I believe next month or sometime uh he’s he’s really been out front and pursuing litigation that would uphold parental
Rights it upholds the safeguarding of children and the equal opportunities of women uh he just announced a lawsuit recently uh of a school district here um there were three school board members who were kind of like these whistleblowers uh so AG Bailey he announced a lawsuit into the school for
Allowing boys to go into the the women’s locker room the girls locker room and of course with public pressure they’ve decided to reverse their policies as they always do um so he’s really been a leader but now um we’ve had 24 states that have enacted some sort of fairness
In women’s sports bill which is which is pretty phenomenal considering you know just three years ago only one state had um Ohio being the most recent uh Governor dwine which is a republican Governor he vetoed the women’s sports Bill uh but they were able to to get a
Majority in both the house and the Senate to override his veto uh so 24 states that have done that uh I’ve been working on a new piece of legislation which is why actually tomorrow me and attorney general Bailey uh we’ve got a press conference and and some different
Things planned here in Missouri um I’ve I’ve dedicated my my time to really advancing this bill I was just in West Virginia this week doing the exact same with Governor justice but it’s a bill it’s called the women’s Bill of Rights and what this is and I can’t even believe it’s necessary
Um it’s a bill that codifies and defines the word woman I know the dreaded question of what is a [Applause] woman I know it’s uh it’s kind of hysterical honestly uh but here we are in 2024 we have a sitting Supreme Court Justice who can’t even Define what a
Woman is when asked because she said oh well I’m not a biologist well guess what I’m not a veterinarian but I know what a dog is that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard um so yeah it’s necessary to Define and urgent I would add to Define what a
Woman is uh so that’s been passed in Kansas and my home state of Tennessee in Oklahoma and Nebraska um I am confident that Misouri will soon as well which is great news um so that’s been a big push uh of course I mentioned previously that the Biden Administration is pursuing an
Illegal administrative rewrite of title N9 equating sex with gender identity uh meaning it will no longer be preventing discrimination on the basis of sex it will be preventing discrimination on the basis of gender identity it’s a lot broader than just women’s sports men could take academic and athletic
Scholarships away from women men would have full access to bathrooms locker rooms changing spaces on campuses um men to join sororities which is already happening these girls were promised Sisterhood and they got the brother they never wanted um and Men could be randomly housed in dorm rooms with women
And under this new rewrite if you who are a 17-year-old girl who is housed with a male on on your college campus if you go to your Administration and complain you are guilty and charged with sexual harassment not the man who’s parading around your locker room no that’s Brave
And stunning and inspiring and whatever other virtuous word they want to use but you calling a spade a spade is grounds for sexual harassment actually me standing here by the time April comes if if the bid Administration goes through with it I’m guilty of sexual harassment
Right now for calling Thomas a male and not using his preferred pronouns um which is um just crazy so anyways um I I could get into a lot of the different specifics of it I know we’re going to have a Q&A which I’m very excited for but I I’ll just wrap up here
Um with some encouragement was that a timer for me to stop who had that timer gosh make me feel bad no uh wrap up with some encouragement um first and foremost I want to tell you to trust God’s calling uh when I was thrusted into this position I didn’t feel
Equipped for this uh when I had to take my public speaking courses in college my face turned the color of a tomato probably as red as Ivy’s face turned when we were about to sing her happy birthday my face turned the color of a tomato I knew nothing about our civil
Process admittedly and ashamedly uh I didn’t have to take any government courses which is kind of scary now that I I think about it I knew we had three branches uh but don’t ask me what they did and actually still don’t ask me what they do I don’t really know um so I
Didn’t feel prepared for this but I realized God doesn’t call the equipped he equips the called and if he brings you to it he will certainly bring you through it just as he did Moses who led the Israelites out with Aaron and his staff and just as he did Joshua he
Promised a victory over the Canaanites and just as he did Esther before she was brought before the king um be be a David be a Daniel um be an Esther those are the people that that we need so desperately and understand we’re a body of Christ right
Um we have the hands and we have the feet and again we have those annoying mouths that won’t shut up and have to have timers that go off to make them stop talking um but we all have a role a different role a distinct role and and
To disobey or to not follow his calling is is to disobey uh so so trust God’s calling for you and secondly I’ll I’ll just say look don’t wait until you’re directly impacted to to take a stand in some capacity like I did um I waited until I was affected personally before I
Found it necessary to say something but if we all wait until that point it’s too late and I can actually guarantee you that that many in this room have their own experience to a degree of whether it’s competing against a boy or a boy coming in your bathroom or your
Locker room or or getting a bad grade on an assignment again probably not here but maybe in high school a bad grade on your assignment for not using the right verbiage and following the narrative that your teachers wanted you to follow I bet you a lot of you have been
Impacted by this in ways um but be proactive rather than reactive and parents in the room grandparents in the room be willing to defend your daughters uh your daughters are in desperate need you know a lot of this this battle has fallen entirely on the shoulders of young girls and
Women uh we often ask ourselves actually the question of where the feminists which like don’t even get me started um but I think just as often as we ask that question we should be asking ourselves the question of where are the men men you’re not immune to this either
You thought you were about to get through this whole whole talk and not be called out wrong uh we need strong men men uh we need men who are willing to fulfill their biblical role of protecting and providing uh there’s a saying and it’s it’s Rings really true it it’s repeats
Itself throughout history it’s hard times create strong men strong men create good times good times create weak men weak men create hard times and like I said it’s a cycle there’s no doubt in my mind what part of the process we’re in now and it’s where weak men have created hard
Times I think the last time we had a society full of strong men was in the 1940s during World War II and you think about it 80 years ago you think about it these were men who were willing to actively lie about their age say they were older than what they
Really were so they could enlist and fight for this country and now in 2024 we have men actively lying about their sex so they can get into women’s sports uh so if that doesn’t tell you what part of the process we’re in but hopefully these hard times will
Garner strong men again so parents defend your daughters uh but be willing to teach your son’s masculinity as well um I had this pretty skewed perception of what respect was and what love and tolerance and compassion was and I we hear those words all the time you know
You need to be compassionate you need to be kind let me tell you it’s not compassionate to ask a young girl to undress in a locker room with a man it’s not what compassion is and it’s not kind to ask us as women to step aside and
Allow these men onto our podiums that’s not what kindness is no it’s kind to tell the truth that is what love is you know you think of this phrase true love those words Truth and Love they’re synonymous it is loving to tell the truth and of course we have to to have a
Balance it’s a balance a balancing act between truth and Grace because if you’re all truth and no Grace then you’re self-righteous and if you’re all Grace and no truth then you’re probably just stupid so it’s definitely a balancing act and it’s what Jesus did so well um but understand it’s it’s never
Kind to lie and I’ll I’ll actually wrap up I know I’ve said that a lot of times I’m a swimmer I’m long- winded okay um but my favorite Bible verse and I was reminded of of this at dinner um my favorite Bible verse it always has been
Is Romans 88:18 Romans 8 is my favorite chapter in the Bible um it’s for our present sufferings aren’t worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us and admittedly and kind of cringely I loved this verse when I was younger because I related it to swimming uh you know our present
Sufferings it was the work you put in it was the hours it was the time it was the sacrifices but it paled in comparison to when you broke a broke a record or or won a championship or got a best time it made all the hard things worth it but
Let me tell you that verse for our present sufferings aren’t worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in US is more evident in my life now than I ever would have imagined it would be the present sufferings yeah it’s the backlash it’s the name calling it’s the being spit on
And and having protesters and and people showing up at my house and drones flying above my house and and drinks poured on me and Bottles thrown at me and being punched yeah that’s that’s the present sufferings but let me tell you it pales in comparison when you know what you’re
Fighting for and really who you’re fighting for um so again I just could not be more grateful for the experience that I have had here I wish it was this Pleasant everywhere the world would be a better place um so anyways I’m just very grateful you have an amazing support
Wheel of Staff around you um I felt that and the president his amazing wife um Dr Turner who has just been awesome you guys have really awesome people around you um so thank you and I’m excited to answer some questions so thanks [Applause] y’all better not okay y’all better not
Stand when it’s Attorney General Bailey’s turn I want to feel special you are special we’re so grateful that you’re here we’re going to let Riley catch her breath for just a a couple of minutes we’re going to enter into a time of uh just question and answer here’s
How we’re going to do this we have a couple of our um free Society Scholars as we call them uh Ashlin and Sydney and they’re going to be in each aisle going up here they’ll have a microphone and uh we ask if if you have a question you
Would move to them and move to the aisle to ask your question so like any good Q&A you know we always want to try to set some expectations so um here would be a couple of expectations one that you would ask a question that that’s the
Heart of a Q&A so I know I’ve been to a lot of q&as where they’ve been more of like hey I want to make a statement you know and then is there a question in that statement so uh I know there are a lot of people maybe that want to ask
Questions so please ask a question try to try to be brief um to give other people a time to to talk to R and ask her a question again this is not a time for um protesting or uh engagement or entering to an an argument um we want to
Respect Riley and respect her time and we are again so grateful that you are here I’m going to kick us off and actually ask you a question and then While others are moving their way to the aisle you can talk a little bit but you you talked a little bit about the EnV
Your talk how about your Christian faith about these Heroes of the faith David and Daniel and Esther I thought about Esther earlier with for such a time as this so could you just share it briefly how does your Christian faith impact what you do on a daily
Basis you know I um I I really can’t imagine my life without my faith and I was explaining this this earlier um I don’t know how people do it if they don’t have faith and something to lean on through hardships and through hard times uh I mean that’s what gets me
Through it knowing again the battle is already won we’re just here to to spread his word and and spread his message and his gospel that’s what we’re here for and so knowing that and knowing that this is only a blip of time when you in comparison to Eternity um it’s how I’m
Able to do this with really a smile on my face and a very light heart um and with love for those around me uh you know you’re very quick to get labeled as um anti-r anti fill-in the blank uh they’ll call you it all but but the reality of
It is is this isn’t anti anything it’s proom it’s pro- fairness it’s Pro reality it’s Pro common sense and it’s Pro biblical truth and biblical morals that’s what this is pro it’s not anti- anything uh but yeah I’m very fortunate to have a strong background in my faith from my
Parents I have two parents who who love each other uh which is now I’m realizing as I get old older isn’t always the case and so to have that Family Foundation uh who took me to church every Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night which is a drag when you’re the youngest
One in the congregation by like 70 plus years um but now you know being older uh I realized just how fortunate they were they had to drag me there when I was younger but but really it’s um that’s what this this whole thing is is about is is Faith and spreading his word
Absolutely okay questions from the audience it’s a little hard for me to see up here under the lights so we have a question right over here um yes hi I really enjoyed your talk um near the end you said that we need to be proactive
And we need to not wait what are some steps that we can take today or tomorrow to actually be proactive in defending women’s sports and women’s spaces absolutely she asked um if you couldn’t hear about you know I mentioned be proactive okay well what does being proactive really look like uh there’s a
Lot we can do as young people uh which has been a big push of mine why why I find it necessary to talk to young people because ultimately this is our future these old guys are going to die pretty soon hopefully not not too soon just kidding I’m just kiding he does like
Iron Man’s and stuff he’s incredibly fit and he’s awesome uh but it is ultimately up to us we’ll still call you young thank you uh but but what we can do look I mean what this Society is lacking is civil discourse uh we see so much yelling down one another’s
Throats not willing to listen to one another um and I I think that’s what is our job to facilitate um is these environments where we can talk and we can listen and we can share our perspective and listen to someone else’s perspective and know that doesn’t mean
We’re going to agree all the time but that’s how we unify that’s how we advance that’s how we we can work together to create Solutions uh without compromising on what’s right and what is true um and I think that’s what needs to be had I think the the scariest thing
About our society right now despite the fact um that I I think we live in a pretty Godless Society for as a um is the unwillingness to admit when we’re wrong and the inability yeah the inability to to say sorry or admit that we’re wrong so I think working on that
As well uh especially these female athletes and even male athletes you know here what we can do as athletes is being proactive in talking to your coach I imagine your coaches here I got to meet some today are just incredible but you know posing the question of okay if this
Were to happen What do we do my understanding is that the softball team here uh not too long ago had to compete against another college team that had a boy playing um and he was a DH and gets up to hit the ball and hits it out of the
Park uh off of off of one of the pitchers here um at Hannibal the Grange so uh don’t think for a second it’s not happening here we’re safe we’re in our own little Safe Community which you guys really do feel like a safe Community out
Here uh but no one is immune is what we’ve we’ve I at least have realized uh so just having the conversations I think is incredibly important what are some environments that people can engage in those conversations I know that you spend a lot of time on social media like you’re
Very active on uh posting and retweeting and those S types of things so sometimes social media can as we all know become very vitriolic so what are some sort of good environments for young people to engage in maybe that aren’t the typical go-to like social media yeah I I think
The best environment really is is local that’s where all of this all of this stems is local uh like I mentioned the school board in Missouri it’s it’s small right it’s not like the federal government or anything crazy but it starts there and that’s how it becomes normalized to a degree uh so
Just working in your community whatever way that is um having the conversations here uh is important to to you know kind of do your part uh really nationally it trans it transcends Beyond yeah so face to face is always good yeah face to face
I do like X or Twitter I know whatever I still call it Twitter I know I know in every news article it’s like X formerly Twitter I’m like just say call it what it is yeah um that’s been a place where uh I have found that I haven’t been
Censored I’ll I mean I’ll post like literally nothing on Tik Tok that’s even remotely controversial it’s not even about this topic and it’s like deleted your account is bullying and harassment I’m like I didn’t even say a word in this video but okay um so yeah it’s a
Crazy world we have a question over here I believe no you’re obviously a very competitive individual is it within the realm of possibility that you would ever resume top level trading and go out for maybe the Olympics it’s a good question Olympics are coming up they that they are
Pressure oh I don’t feel the pressure uh I so I did all the Olympic stuff in 2016 and uh 2020 which rolled into 2021 uh and it was a phenomenal experience you know competing at that highest level um with with some of the greats uh the I
Mean the greats the greatest of all time um it’s it’s pretty incredible but graduated in 22 and I just was not willing to hold on for a couple more years um but I still you know I still love competing I I think that’s part of being an athlete I’m sure that’s
Something that will probably be instilled in me the rest of my life you know uh I love pressure I love competing Under Pressure um I have found so much comfort in being you know in these higher pressure environments I love it which probably is weird if you say it
Out loud um but yeah I just love competing so I still do some marathons and triathlons and different things um terrible at the bike though yeah um but yeah I really I think than I love competing I love winning so yeah that’s a good question thank you uh I want to
Give time over here I have a question over here okay next believe we have a question here or over here here okay go ahead how do we love the lgbtq community well while also standing in bi biblical truth especially within women’s sports it’s a great question it is a good
Question and this is something I found myself struggling with um you know not really internally like I knew I love these people and I I knew I didn’t feel hatred in my heart for for you know I don’t have hate in my heart for Leia Thomas of course not look Thomas was
Just following the rules um and you know this is something I talked with my my my pastor my youth pastor about people around me who were strong in their faith you know um the hardest comments for me to receive at the beginning of this was well you’re not living a christ-like
Life like our Christ wouldn’t do this you know we have a God who loves all and I struggled with this because I knew of course we have a God who loves all um and before anything I wanted to live a Christlike life and so I didn’t know
What to do but talking to these people in my faith uh they very much reminded me yes we have a God who loves all but we have a God who created man and woman again in his Perfect Image um that reflects himself and who are we to
Change that and so I think realizing that um it helped me at least understand that this this can be done out of love and look if you think about what Jesus how Jesus responded and and dealt with and interacted with with Sinners or or you think of you know the tax collectors
And the prostitutes he would wash their feet and at the end of it he would say go and S no more uh so he loved them dearly and would spend time with them but he would hold them accountable and he would hold them responsible for their actions and I think as Christians um
Here on this Earth that’s what we’re meant to do as well I appreciate that can I get your cell phone number after this so funny yeah yeah I’m no Theologian but oh yeah I well yeah I am so yeah like love and truth right I mean
We we we balance yes our God loves all but there is there is truth that has to be spoken I love how you said that wash their feet but go ins sin no more it’s perfect so over here I believe um did you ever struggle with your team and
Their interviews on this topic if they agreed with you why do you think they never stood up to the problem like you did yeah that that is a great question and I’ll tell you um I was team captain of of the UK swim team in my Junior and
Senior year uh and so being team captain and all of this arose I felt kind of this sense of responsibility to address it right I was talking to a lot of my friends on other teams and it was like they were silent about it and I
Didn’t want my team to fall into that same category I wanted to make sure that everyone and of we had a ton of different political backgrounds people believing different things some Believers some non-believers we had uh many people on our team who were part of the lgbtq community so it was a hard
Conversation to have but I knew as someone who um was a leader on this team I knew there had to be a space to have it and so I made sure to facilitate this conversation uh on my team and I didn’t do it in a way that imposed
What I thought or what I believed but what I found and just creating a space where we could openly talk about it was 38 out of the 40 girls on my team yeah which is like a large team uh we weren’t allowed to be in sororities or anything
But we called ourselves the Kappa Kappa goggles um but and it felt like dealing with a sorority many times being Captain but of the 40 girls in our team I found that 38 of them felt the exact same way that that I did um and it wasn’t because we
Had 38 staunch Republicans swimming for the University of Kentucky no it’s we because we had 38 girls who didn’t want their opportunities that they they so hardly and so so tirelessly fought for to be taken away from them uh and in finding this out um it just made things
A lot easier um we didn’t feel like we had to walk on eggshells necessarily and I’ll tell you I had an amazing coach uh who’s very supportive of me uh he has since lost his job for being supportive of me so maybe he can come coach yeah we gra that’s Dr
Matts um but I think you know what what set maybe me apart from from some of my other teammates um and and some of my other competitors is one is my faith background um I I think that certainly is something that was able to keep me grounded and really propagate me forward
Uh again having that support wheel my family around me you know friends who who loved me even if they didn’t agree with me uh my friends they know my heart and they know my intentions and and they support me and they care for me um so
Having those my faith and my family I think that’s a big part in What separated Me Maybe from from some others who who certainly feel the same way but again understandably are are pretty terrified we have time for one more question so right over
Here um I I just want to say that you are amazing thank you so they always want us to care about their feelings and that we have to make sure we don’t hurt them or anything like that hurt their feelings but everything that’s being done against women and especially women’s sports
It’s hurting women and it’s hurting our feelings and having to change in a dressing room with a man it’s hurtful to us why is that not seen at all it is and this is something that I have really focused my time on is kind of Shifting Shifting the perspective a
Little bit because you’re exactly right uh Governor Cox who’s the the governor um in Utah again another Republican governor who vetoed their women’s sports Bill the first time I noticed this I mean I I guess I had subconsciously noticed it before but hadn’t really
Thought of it in that way but in his his speech after vetoing this he said he wanted to air on the side of compassion and I was so it it hit me then I’m like wait compassion does go two ways and this is not compassionate towards us and
So a few months back um I was testifying before the Senate and it was Senator Dick Durban and he looked at me and he said you I know oo I know that that really struck a cord I love it here um Senator Dick Durban which let me just say before I
Testified before the Senate I had several Democrat Senators come up to me before the hearing and say you know look I played college sports I totally agree with you I was a football player at Stanford uh I agree with everything you’re saying and then got on the other
Side of the table and totally grilled me um but it was Senator Dick deran he’s speaking and he looks at me he says you know what message are you sending to our trans Youth and I looked at him and I said Senator Durban what message are you
Sending to young girls and women but I think that’s what we need to do I think it’s necessary that we call out the hypocrisy and we call out the lies really they’re not expecting us to just like representative Lee she wasn’t expecting to be called a misogynist but
I I think it’s it’s notable sometimes and I’m not saying to stoop down to anyone’s level but I am saying maybe sometimes it’s fun um not really but I think I do think it’s it’s calling out the hypocrisy and again um rather than standing against something it is so much more powerful
And effective to stand for something and so that’s how I try and frame my messaging before the state legislators the the before the federal government it’s very much a a pro-woman argument and so shifting it in that way I think is a powerful way to to persuade people
To open people’s eyes and soften people’s hearts yeah it’s interesting how um you hear the phrase speak your truth but when we as Christians stand up and speak the truth it’s where we’re often shouted down called names it’s interesting it’s in this cultural moment where we at that
It’s that we’re there absolutely so we want to thank Riley for being here want to be respectful of your time I do have one final question though um how can people they’ve heard you speak tonight they’ve gotten introduced to who you are how how what’s the best way to stay
Connected with Riley gains and what’s going on in your life uh I feel like the place I post more is X formerly Twitter uh and my username is Riley unor gainor uh and that second uncore you know why two underscores yeah that was before Elon Musk and my account got
Deleted so Riley uncore gamescore um but I try and post you know stories that are happening and just so people don’t believe the lie or the narrative that this is a non-issue it’s not really happening uh because again I could I truly truly could sit up here for five
Hours and let you know of examples happening around this country in all sports all levels all divisions all states I I really I really could um I’ll just say one piece I didn’t really touch on tonight but another important aspect of of why men shouldn’t be competing in
Women’s sports just just to give you guys a little bit more perspective here uh two stories actually a volleyball player I know the timer is gon to go off no it’s okay a volleyball player go ahead a volleyball player in North Carolina uh she’s a senior in high
School uh going to college to play softball actually they’re going against a team that has a a boy on their women’s team uh keep in mind a men’s net is seven and and a half inches taller than a women’s net uh but this boy jumps up
Spikes the ball hits Payton in the face immediately she’s knocked unconscious um still to this day this happened in September of 2022 so so a year and a half still to this day she’s partially paralyzed on her right side she has to have special accommodations for testing at school she didn’t get to
Go to college to play softball anymore her vision is impaired her memory is impaired uh just a few weeks ago in Massachusetts in a field hockey game there was a boy who was playing on the women’s team uh who who slapped a shot uh hit one of the girls in the face uh
Knocked all her teeth out uh undergoing dental surgery and faal facial surgeries um to restore her face and that’s not to say injuries don’t happen when when women are playing against women but the severity and and the risk and the likelihood increase exponentially when we allow men and now we’ve seen USA
Boxing’s new guidelines uh which allows men in the name of progress uh to get in a ring knock women unconscious with every intent of essentially killing them and then giving them prize money for it I mean it’s literally wild so so the safety aspect is another piece so I try
And post long story short different things on on X um just to highlight great some of these these stories occurring okay let’s thank Riley again for being here [Applause] tonight
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