{"id":1927676,"date":"2023-05-09T22:10:55","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T02:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/i-was-ready-to-go-to-dental-school-riley-gaines-became-an-activist-by-accident-but-shes-not-backing-down\/"},"modified":"2023-05-09T22:15:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T02:15:38","slug":"i-was-ready-to-go-to-dental-school-riley-gaines-became-an-activist-by-accident-but-shes-not-backing-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/i-was-ready-to-go-to-dental-school-riley-gaines-became-an-activist-by-accident-but-shes-not-backing-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Riley Gaines was prepared for dental school, but became an accidental activist and remains determined."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fi-was-ready-to-go-to-dental-school-riley-gaines-became-an-activist-by-accident-but-shes-not-backing-down%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1927676&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Riley Gaines: From Athlete to Activist<\/h2>\n<p>Riley Gaines had big plans for her life: she was going to graduate from University of Kentucky, go on to dental school, become an endodontist, and ride off into the sunset with her husband and dog by her side. But all that changed when, at the last meet of an illustrious collegiate swimming career, she came face to face with a challenge that she knew was going to impact young female athletes for years to come unless someone \u2014 someone like her \u2014 stood up and said \u201cno more.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Athlete Turned Activist<\/h3>\n<p>Gaines never planned a life of activism. She came from a family of athletes \u2014 a father who played football professionally, a brother who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/joe-manchin-is-the-most-interesting-man-in-the-senate\/\" title=\"Joe Manchin Is The Most Interesting Man In The Senate\">played college football<\/a>, and a sister who is a gymnast \u2014 so it was no surprise that she made a name for herself as an athlete as well. The pool was where she shined, and after years of training, she was ready to compete in the NCAA finals \u2014 wearing blue for University of Kentucky.<\/p>\n<p>It was the final meet of her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-nfl-insider-breaks-down-top-quarterbacks-ahead-of-draft-day\/\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE: NFL Insider Breaks Down Top Quarterbacks Ahead Of Draft Day\">collegiate career<\/a>, and even though she had been warned ahead of time that she would be competing against a biological male \u2014 trans-identifying University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas \u2014 she and the other women competing had apparently not been warned that Thomas would be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-spy-chief-has-high-degree-of-confidence-covid-came-from-wuhan-lab\/\" title=\"Former Spy Chief Has \"High Degree of Confidence\" COVID Came From Wuhan Lab\">granted full access<\/a> to the women\u2019s facilities during the competition.<\/p>\n<h3>The Fight for Fairness<\/h3>\n<p>Thomas, who was still biologically male in every way, was allowed access to the locker room while female competitors stripped down and struggled into their skintight racing suits. The women, Gaines said, felt uncomfortable and intimidated \u2014 but many were afraid to speak up for fear of backlash.<\/p>\n<p>In the pool, Thomas tied Gaines for fifth place in the 200 freestyle \u2014 but when the time came for photos of the winners, the NCAA leadership insisted on having Thomas hold up the trophy for publicity purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Gaines was incensed, calling the overall experience \u201cdisheartening\u201d not because she didn\u2019t get the trophy, but because she saw what the NCAA had been willing to do for the right kind of photo opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Gaines quickly realized that dental school would always be there, but the need for a loud voice defending women in sports was both immediate and urgent. Reflecting on the current state of affairs \u2014 the fact that biological males have been allowed into women\u2019s spaces, often based on little more than self-identifying as transgender \u2014 Gaines said people have to realize it is not just about sports.<\/p>\n<h3>Advice for Young Girls<\/h3>\n<p>For now, Gaines says, she\u2019s going to fight. \u201cNow I boycott,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cMy husband gets so sick of it, there are companies that I won\u2019t go into. I have always been strong-willed but now I stand stronger than I did before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gaines concluded with her own advice to young girls who were thinking about competing or who were already involved, saying, \u201cDo not get discouraged, do not cave. It breaks my heart to have parents tell me that their middle school and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/i-was-ready-to-go-to-dental-school-riley-gaines-became-an-activist-by-accident-but-shes-not-backing-down\/\" title=\"Riley Gaines was prepared for dental school, but became an accidental activist and remains determined.\">high school-aged daughters don\u2019<\/a>t want to compete anymore because they either have direct experience [competing against biological males] or because they\u2019re afraid it might happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo parents, I\u2019d say protect your daughters,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd teach your sons masculinity. Teach them masculinity because then they will want to protect your daughters as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Riley Gaines had big plans for her life: she was going to graduate from University of Kentucky, go on to dental school, become an endodontist, and ride off into the sunset with her husband and dog by her side. All that changed when, at the last meet of an illustrious collegiate swimming career, she came<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":1927677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[10947,26295,5327,20277,17380,14813,8689,9522,3924],"class_list":["post-1927676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-determined","tag-accidental","tag-activist","tag-dental","tag-gaines","tag-prepared","tag-remains","tag-riley","tag-school"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1927676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1927677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1927676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1927676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1927676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}