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Tentatively interested. I have a lot of respect for you, Martina, Nancy and others on your team. But I think you know my reservations. The second Riley Gaines is platformed or promoted, I'm out.
I can't post screenshots of tweets here to support what I'm about to say, but if you want the receipts, I can message them to you. But I wanted to respond to you publicly first.
Where to begin?
She posts racist and homophobic tweets and is not an effective advocate for the female category in sport.
Some examples:
Prior to the election, she repeated Trump’s propaganda about immigrants from south of the border being rapists and criminals. Cited studies showing that they commit crimes at a lower rate than US citizens, she waved it away saying, because they came here illegally, they are criminals.
She was at it again just yesterday, reposting Trump’s propaganda that LA has been “invaded” and swarmed by “insurrectionist mobs” - language he is using to move towards martial law.
An example of homophobia: Retweeting an image of Satan sewing a pride flag.
Sometimes racism and homophobia in the same tweet! In one, she said her husband is straight, white and god-fearing - and implied that’s why he’s back of the line for his green card. Much later she admitted he doesn’t have his green card because he refuses to get a covid shot.
She comes across as hypocritical advocating for privacy and safety for women and girls in locker rooms because she is an ardent supporter of an adjudicated rapist, self-described pussy grabber, and admitted voyeur of naked women in the Teen USA locker room.
That is just one of the reasons I think she harms more than helps. She perpetuates the polarization around this issue because she is a far right MAGA influencer. That makes it very easy for people who might otherwise, MAYBE listen, to dismiss anything she has to say. She perpetuates the image of women opposed to trans-identified males in female sport as right wing bigots.
When she first came on the scene, I cut her some slack because she is young. I defended her to that creep Keith Olbermann. But she has had time to learn, and now has a huge and influential platform.
I despair that with all that’s happening under the Trump regime, women still think you can “work across the aisle” with Republicans or organizations that are part of Project 2025. That was how things got done in the past. Those days are gone. The GOP is not what it was. It is totally taken over by MAGA and in thrall to wanna be dictator Donald Trump.
Some of what you wrote here actually makes me like Riley Gaines MORE. And a lot of what you wrote has NOTHING to do with protecting women's sports.
I find if we turn our focus to other issues, you will find a lot of different opinions, the biggest one you have here seems to be her position on those illegally in the U.S. (NOT to be conflated with "immigrants", who go through a process, which is why Riley was saying that it IS harder for her husband. It is easier to come to the United States ILLEGALLY, since you avoid the whole process. People who come here illegally are unknown and unknowable).
Additionally, many come illegally from countries with LAWS THAT ARE PERMISSIVE to what we consider to be rape in the United States. Did you know that in a lot of Mexican towns the age for a young girl to consent to sex can be as young as 12?!!
You see what happened here, Katherine? We went into OTHER ISSUES, and you presume people who agree with you on this one, should agree with you on others.
The most pressing Question really is....what do YOU do to protect women's sports?? Besides, of course, writing insults about Riley and threatening Mariah to be "out" the second Riley's name comes up??
By the way, to counter your "racist" mischaracterization of Riley, here is a Video of several Black women, many of whom are athletes, standing up for Riley when Simone Biles performatively attacked her:
Women’s sports in this political context is not a thing unto itself. Wider politics affect how this will be resolved.
Re immigration - Gaines used the words “white husband” when implying he was being discriminated against. She wasn’t distinguishing between legal and illegal. I’ve seen enough of her other tweets to recognize what she’s about.
It sounds like you are one of the organizers - and that this is not the group for me. So I’ll exit now. Enjoy the dictatorship.
Sounds great!
Thank you for all you are doing to protect women's sports, Mariah.
You're very welcome. It takes a team. :-)
Tentatively interested. I have a lot of respect for you, Martina, Nancy and others on your team. But I think you know my reservations. The second Riley Gaines is platformed or promoted, I'm out.
Hi Katherine,
I am a little confused. Is there something about Riley Gaines that I don't know about that makes her persona non-grata?
I thought she was doing a lot of work to help protect women's sports. And, as a former female athlete, I've appreciated that.
I can't post screenshots of tweets here to support what I'm about to say, but if you want the receipts, I can message them to you. But I wanted to respond to you publicly first.
Where to begin?
She posts racist and homophobic tweets and is not an effective advocate for the female category in sport.
Some examples:
Prior to the election, she repeated Trump’s propaganda about immigrants from south of the border being rapists and criminals. Cited studies showing that they commit crimes at a lower rate than US citizens, she waved it away saying, because they came here illegally, they are criminals.
She was at it again just yesterday, reposting Trump’s propaganda that LA has been “invaded” and swarmed by “insurrectionist mobs” - language he is using to move towards martial law.
An example of homophobia: Retweeting an image of Satan sewing a pride flag.
Sometimes racism and homophobia in the same tweet! In one, she said her husband is straight, white and god-fearing - and implied that’s why he’s back of the line for his green card. Much later she admitted he doesn’t have his green card because he refuses to get a covid shot.
She comes across as hypocritical advocating for privacy and safety for women and girls in locker rooms because she is an ardent supporter of an adjudicated rapist, self-described pussy grabber, and admitted voyeur of naked women in the Teen USA locker room.
That is just one of the reasons I think she harms more than helps. She perpetuates the polarization around this issue because she is a far right MAGA influencer. That makes it very easy for people who might otherwise, MAYBE listen, to dismiss anything she has to say. She perpetuates the image of women opposed to trans-identified males in female sport as right wing bigots.
When she first came on the scene, I cut her some slack because she is young. I defended her to that creep Keith Olbermann. But she has had time to learn, and now has a huge and influential platform.
I despair that with all that’s happening under the Trump regime, women still think you can “work across the aisle” with Republicans or organizations that are part of Project 2025. That was how things got done in the past. Those days are gone. The GOP is not what it was. It is totally taken over by MAGA and in thrall to wanna be dictator Donald Trump.
Hi Katherine,
Some of what you wrote here actually makes me like Riley Gaines MORE. And a lot of what you wrote has NOTHING to do with protecting women's sports.
I find if we turn our focus to other issues, you will find a lot of different opinions, the biggest one you have here seems to be her position on those illegally in the U.S. (NOT to be conflated with "immigrants", who go through a process, which is why Riley was saying that it IS harder for her husband. It is easier to come to the United States ILLEGALLY, since you avoid the whole process. People who come here illegally are unknown and unknowable).
Additionally, many come illegally from countries with LAWS THAT ARE PERMISSIVE to what we consider to be rape in the United States. Did you know that in a lot of Mexican towns the age for a young girl to consent to sex can be as young as 12?!!
You see what happened here, Katherine? We went into OTHER ISSUES, and you presume people who agree with you on this one, should agree with you on others.
The most pressing Question really is....what do YOU do to protect women's sports?? Besides, of course, writing insults about Riley and threatening Mariah to be "out" the second Riley's name comes up??
By the way, to counter your "racist" mischaracterization of Riley, here is a Video of several Black women, many of whom are athletes, standing up for Riley when Simone Biles performatively attacked her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh11rUXbCMU
Women’s sports in this political context is not a thing unto itself. Wider politics affect how this will be resolved.
Re immigration - Gaines used the words “white husband” when implying he was being discriminated against. She wasn’t distinguishing between legal and illegal. I’ve seen enough of her other tweets to recognize what she’s about.
It sounds like you are one of the organizers - and that this is not the group for me. So I’ll exit now. Enjoy the dictatorship.