← The Riley Gaines Show
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This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. Whether you're packing for a vacation or dressing for a wedding, Nordstrom has head to toe looks for wherever summer takes you. From swimwear and bold color to romantic florals and dresses that make an entrance. Find the right style for every unforgettable moment. Shop new arrivals from brands you love, like Farmrio, Free People, Vince, Waif, and Staad. Plus free shipping and returns and styling help whenever you need it. Make it all so easy. Shop now in stores@nordstrom.com or download the Nordstrom app.
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Foreign. Let's freaking go. Let's freaking go. Yesterday was a really, really big day for women's sports and for female athletes. I feel like we should start this episode off by playing the Rocky theme song. That's what's playing in my mind, right?
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You.
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You can picture it. He's like, running up the steps. I feel triumphant. I feel vindicated. I feel, of course, excited. There's a part of me that feels exhausted, if I'm being totally honest with you, exhausted that we are still talking about this, that it is still having to be legislated on and ruled on. Absolutely insane to me that as a society, we're applauding and we're celebrating. As the highest court in the land says that boys and girls are different, I find myself scratching my head and asking myself how we got here at least once a day for the past four. Four years now, I would imagine many of you are in that same boat. I have to think that it wasn't too long ago where if we had a Supreme Court ruling like this, people would not applaud necessarily, of course, recognizing it to be the true thing, highlighting reality and common sense. But I don't think we would have seen applause because it was the standard position to take. It was the default position. You know, if you heard the ruling, like, say 10, 20 years ago, you have Clarence Thomas who says, look, boys cannot play in girls sports. You would not immediately go to. To clapping and cheering. You would say, well, duh, duh, boys can't play in girls sports. So there's excitement, yes, long awaited, of course. But there's a part of me that's exhausted that we're still having this conversation. Today is just a very brief, quick, special little episode for you guys, kind of breaking down the ruling, what it really, what implications it's going to have, what's still at stake and how the fight continues. Because, of course, there is still more work to be done. But nonetheless, the Supreme Court has just handed women and girls a massive victory. And really not just women and girls, okay? They handed common sense Americans, which actually happens to be majority of Americans, despite what the headlines may say, despite how elected representation is voting. Okay? You're not crazy for thinking boys and girls or for knowing boys and girls are physiological theologically different. You were just handed a massive victory by the Supreme Court because they have upheld reality and federal law, quite frankly, with a favorable ruling on two landmark cases in a single opinion. If you listen to nothing else of this episode, I guess this is what you can take from it. The ruling in particular is that women's sports can be just for women. Now, the phrasing there is by design, it's important. I'm going to explain why I say women's sports can be for women, not that women's sports must be for women. The two cases that were brought forward, they were addressing state laws in Idaho and West Virginia. These are states that had previously passed legislation that prevented boys from competing in girls sports at the state level. But challengers came forward, they sued. There were injunctions and delays and yada yada, yada, now it's before the Supreme Court. Well, the Supreme Court held that state laws reserving girls and women's sports categories does not in fact violate title 9 or the equal protection clause. This is really big because they ruled that sex in regard to Title IX means sex like your biological sex. Sex is not a subjective identity that changes from person to person. Sex is not something that you can just will into existence. Like your sex is what you were born as and what you will die as and what you are the entire time in between. It actually goes as far to say in the opinion that in 1970s, when Title 9 was initially enacted, that the idea of gender identity, it was never even a concept, it was never even a thought. They never would have imagined that they would have had to define the word sex. But here we are in 2026. That really shouldn't be controversial. And until a few years ago, it was not. And before again, we break it down really what this means. I just want to say that the timing of this ruling could not be more fitting. Number this comes on the last day of Pride month. I don't know, it feels kind of like you're sticking it to all those out there who are so detached from reality that do believe that you can change your sex. And also, this is just days after the 54th anniversary of Title IX, which again is the civil rights law that opened doors for generation of female athletes, including myself, because of Title nine. I was able to compete and succeed and develop as a person. The skill sets that I have, it's because of my sport, the friendships that I have. Actually, even my husband, I met him because of my sport, all of that. I really have to thank Title IX and the women who fought for it, the people who fought for it. I feel indebted to those women, women like my grandma, actually. I think we forget it really wasn't that long ago that women didn't have an opportunity to compete at the high school level, certainly not at the college level. Just, I mean, 54 years ago, it's really not that long. So in my grandma's same lifetime, she's seen the benefits of having women's sports and then she's seen the reversal. She's seen that being taken away. And we're fighting that very same fight again. But the good news is the Supreme Court affirmed that states may preserve the very category that Title IX was created and designed to protect. And again, important, there's an important divide here on that portion of it, on if those states, specifically Idaho and West Virginia, violated Title 9. The ruling was actually 9. Oh. Which I don't know if I'm necessarily surprised by because it is so clear cut, but I've learned that nothing surprises me when you have a sitting Supreme Court justice who can't answer the question of what is a woman because she says she's not a biologist. I've stopped letting myself be surprised. Okay, so that was 9, 0. That's good news. But the court split actually 6 to 3 on whether these laws violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. I'm not going to get too into the weeds because again, I'm no legal expert, although I did spend majority of the afternoon following the ruling on the phone with lawyers and attorneys who could, who could really help me understand because again, I want to be able to communicate with, with you guys in the most effective and concise and precise way possible. And they explained it to me as this distinction being pretty critical because technically the 14th amendment is in the Constitution, therefore could potentially override and nullify Title 9. But again, that's not the point of this episode anyways. The three dissenting justices were all Democrat appointed women. They would have held that laws protecting women's sports unlawfully discriminate against men. The irony there really speaks for itself. We have seen time and time and time again how liberal women tend to be the biggest hurdle, the biggest obstacle that women have to overcome in the fight for equality. Right, Our fight for Equality is, is presented this, this obstacle of liberal women. The irony there, the hypocrisy, again, it speaks for itself. There's just a couple points I want to make that I notice in reading the opinion and in the dissent. First and foremost, the language shift that we have seen, I really don't think can be overlooked. This is from the opinion of the court. It says, we are acutely aware of the difficulties sometimes faced by boys who identify as girls and by girls who identify as boys in midd school, high school and beyond. This is good because the court is recognizing here that transgender girls are boys. That language shift, again, it can't be overlooked. Enough with terms like trans woman or transgender. They're just men who claim to be women or they're just people who believe that they're the opposite sex. I don't want to get to in the weeds. Or maybe you're thinking, riley, why does it really matter? I'm going to tell you why it matters. It matters because our words mean something. When we use words to communicate, they mean something. Words is what helps you form a picture inside of your mind. This is why I have a problem with all the pronoun nonsense as well, which admittedly I adhered to at first when I first began to speak out, because I thought that was the respectful thing. I thought it was the kind thing. I thought you needed to in order to persuade people to believe you. But just sit and chew on this for a second. It's probably not the best way to phrase that. But think about this. When you use the phrase, as we see oftentimes her penis or her genitalia, her male genitalia, that is the most absurd thing I've quite literally ever heard. Those words that you're using, it's what forms a picture inside your mind. Okay, enough. Enough with even saying biological woman. To be totally honest with you. I hate that. I hate that. Because you're subconsciously admitting that there's an unbiological alternative to being a woman. And there's not that. You don't have to preface, it's just woman use clear sex based language because people are desperate for it. I've got a tweet from ESPN on screen, which let me remind you, is owned by Disney. It says the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a decision to uphold state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams. You see where I'm going with this? They're men. Espn. Not transgender girls or transgender women. They're men. Be honest. Be honest with yourself. Be honest. With the people who look to you for sports content. Okay? You're. You're dishonest hacks at this point. And by the way, no one is banned. We see this rhetoric, we see this messaging all the time. From the other side, when things like this arise, this ruling or laws being passed in specific states or President Trump's executive orders, they say they're banning trans people. They're taking their rights away, their civil rights to compete. You've been lied to if you believe that. If you believe that, that messaging, that rhetoric, that trans people, that men in this case. Because when they say trans people, we know they're talking about men. They're not talking about girls entering boys sports. And of course not, because that doesn't really happen. Yes, it happens, but not at the same rate. Not in the way that fairness is being impeded on as the other way around. No one is being banned. No one. No one is banned because of their gender identity, their sexual orientation, the color of their skin, their religion. Of course not. And they shouldn't be. No one is banned. They're just permitted from competing in a category that does not align with their sex. You can still compete if you're a man who wants to claim the identity of a woman. Say you are a woman. No, I don't support that. But guess what? You can still compete. You can compete with the men as you are a man. Okay? So don't believe the lie. Don't be gaslit into thinking that trans people are being banned like they're going to tell you, because that's simply not happening. It says here men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe they are. Sex is an immutable biological characteristic. It is binary. And man and woman, boy and girl are the terms that correspond to adults and children of each sex. This is awesome, quite frankly, because the Supreme Court is admitting that gender dysphoria is, in fact, a mental illness, and they're saying that trans being transgender doesn't exist at all. And they're right. I even found myself scared to admit that for a while because, again, I didn't want to be seen as disrespectful to anyone's perceived identity or. But it's true. Transgender doesn't exist because you can't change your gender because you can't change your sex. We need more people who are willing to speak this truth. It's not to say that there aren't people who believe they were born in the wrong body. Sure. Those people exist. But they're not transgender because transgenderism is not real. Gender ideology exists. I have no problem saying now confidently and emphatically that being transgender does not exist. Following the ruling, Elizabeth Warren tweeted this out. I have it on screen. It says, right wing extremists and the MAGA movement are determined to single out, target and harm the trans community. My heart is with trans kids, all of them and their loved ones. I won't stop fighting for them. She makes this feel like an obituary, like, my heart is with trans kids and their loved ones. How many lifelong liberals do you know that are not maga? That would certainly not be classified as right wing extremists who take issue with the gender ideology movement, with the LGBTQ Infinite Letters community. I know a lot. Maybe it's just from being involved in this space for several years now, but over the past few years, I've grown to know so many people who, I mean, are kind of ashamed to admit, but they voted for President Biden, who realized the harm that had been done, quite frankly, to the lesbian and gay community. Right. The trans stuff being tacked on to the LGBTQ is harmful to gay people or to their daughters. Right. They realize that, and now they're thinking, what in the world? I would never vote for a Democrat again. They're not maga. They're not right wing extremists. And guess what? If it makes me a right wing extremist to believe that men and women are physiologically different, chromosomally, anatomically, physically, biologically different, then so be it. I guess I'm a right wing extremist. I am no political strategist. I'm really not. But I think I could advise the Democrats. If the goal was to win and to succeed in the midterms and in 2028 with whoever their Democrat darling will be at the time, who they put forward as president, maybe as undemocratically as they did with Kamala Harris. I really do believe I could advise them better than calling 90% of Americans right wing extremists again for believing that boys and girls are physically different. It's utterly insane. These people have no brain left. This ideology, it rots people's ability to think, to think clearly. They can't. Even the damage that's being done to women and to girls and to equality, to use their own buzzword, right in front of their nose. Just one more point I want to make, because again, we hear it all the time about, and we just saw it from Elizabeth Warren, essentially, where it's what about their mental health? What about the boys mental health? What about their feelings? Honestly, I don't feel like we've seen a good rebuttal to this on a national stage like we have until today. The obvious response to this, when someone says, what about the boy's feelings? Or the person who identifies as trans, what about his feelings? The obvious response to this is, what about the girl's feelings? What about their mental health? What if. About if they feel violated in an intimate area of undressing and they turn around and there's a 6 foot 4 man? What about their feelings when they're excluded from, you know, their, their travel team because a man had taken their spot? Or they don't get that scholarship because a man was awarded that scholarship? Right. What about those girls? They have never been a consideration to the other side of the aisle, which is, is quite telling. I think they've made the point that a men's feelings matter more than a woman's physical safety. Especially in, like a sport where you're colliding with one another, throwing something at one another, they're saying a men's feelings matter more than a woman's actual safety. But today we saw actually Justice Brett Kavanaugh directing attention towards the girls, which I really appreciated. He says, in conducting the equal protection inquiry, we must also account for the effects on girls who are forced to compete against biological males in sports. It seems so simple, right? Like, again, it's one of those duh moments. But I don't think we had seen something like that. So I was very excited to see that this. Let's go back to this ruling. What does it really mean? I know I've kind of built it up again. It's celebratory. We're excited. This is long awaited. It's a good thing. And of course, all of that is true, but it's not as strong as we'd like it to be. Shocker, right? And by we, I mean those of us who believe that girls, regardless of where they live, regardless of what their zip code is, should never have to fear being met with a large man standing on the other side of the volleyball net staring that young girl down. The ruling does not mean that states have to make the women's category exclusive to real women. It just means that it's not illegal if they do. So again, that distinction matters. It's like a may, not must. 27 states have passed some sort of fairness in women's sports law, meaning that 23 states have not pass some sort of law so fairness and safety in sports for girls very much depends on your zip code. So then the question is, okay, well, where do we go from here? I think there's a lot of people who believe there's nothing left to be done because President Trump is in the Oval Office, and he's done everything that he can do, right? Wrong. While certainly he deserves credit for making all of this, this issue, really impossible to ignore, he campaigned on it. He signed executive orders on day one. He hasn't been shy talking about the issue. You've seen the videos of him imitating, like, the weightlifter. I see him on TikTok all the time. I will say, if the president ever becomes tired of being the president, I think comedian is calling his name. But executive orders, they are not permanent. The next president can revoke those with the stroke of a penalty. So we need Congress to act. This has stalled because of some weird, obscure rules in the Senate pertaining to, like, a cloture vote. It has stalled in the Senate. We've seen the House pass. I think it's HR28, the protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. Haven't seen it move in the Senate. So those things need to be codified rather than leaving them dependent on whichever administration is in the White House. We still need states to act through legislation or through ballot measures, referendums, initiatives. We need real enforcement mechanisms, and we need a culture that is willing to push back. I think, honestly, most importantly, that is how you really make change. When the culture shifts, that's when you will begin to see whether it's institutions, corporations, businesses, universities, large governing bodies, specific sport governing bodies. That's when you will see those change. When the culture changes. I personally believe so. Then the question becomes, well, what happens to states like California or Washington or Maine or Minnesota or Michigan or any of the states. Right. You know, the ones that I'm talking about, those who have, up until this point, openly defied President Trump in executive order in federal law. Well, to put it pretty frankly, those states will continue to suffer from the very real, diagnosable, debilitating disease they contracted in 2016, which is TDS, Trump Derangement Syndrome. Those states will continue to be the villains in this story. I have no reason to believe that they won't continue to give a middle finger to President Trump, or at least that's what they think they're doing. They think by defying federal law, they're sticking it to President Trump when the reality is that's not what they're doing. They're giving a middle finger to every young girl in their state. We have no reason to believe that they won't continue to do just that. So I hope we see, I mentioned those enforcement mechanisms. I hope we see the Department of Justice maybe working in collaboration with the Department of Education, aggressively enforce existing federal law against these institutions that again continue to violate the rights of women and girls, which this is not going to be immediate. Right. Unfortunately, legal challenges, they take time, takes effort. It takes money, quite frankly. Activist states will certainly seek injunctions and delays. Okay, but we know that's at least effective or at least history has proven it to be. You hit them where it hurts. That's the pockets. That's when things begin to change course, when ignoring reality becomes too expensive. And again, I think that's partly the answer. I think it needs to be expensive for people who knowingly and willingly, willingly put girls in harm's way for the sake of ideology. I think that needs to cost them something. Next thing I want to give my thoughts on here is will the trans issue continue to be a front running issue in 2026 and 2028? Will Democrats continue to lean into their extremism? They've given us no reason to believe that this issue won't be front and center again the next election cycle. This is the hill the Democrats have chosen to die on, which is quite remarkable. And as a conservative, if there weren't real implication, if there weren't real consequences to their actions and their messaging and what they're advocating for, they're pretty destructive, harmful policies, I would say. Then go for it. Please, by all means, continue this absolutely insane radical position because guess what, it makes it easier for us. President Trump's most effective campaign in the last election was Kamala Harris is for they them. Donald Trump is for you. That resonated with people and following that red wave, right? President Trump in the Oval Office, maintaining control of the House, gaining control of the Senate, you would think at least I thought naturally. Again, as a, a logical, rational, thinking person or at least so I like to think. I believe that Democrats would like recant and distance themselves from their, their extreme positions. They haven't done that at all. They have only become more radical. There are several examples of this. Mamdani is an obvious one. But not just in, in, you know, hyper liberal states like New York. It's also in states like Virginia where they previously had a Republican Attorney General Jason Miarez. Now is Jay Jones, who I believe engaged in the most violent and extreme rhetoric that we have seen from any major level candidate of any race, local, state and federal, and saying that he wishes to watch the children of his political opponents die in their parents arms. And he won. He is now the state's top law enforcement officer. That is a condemnation of humanity. Look who they're putting forward in Texas. James Talarico, who believes that God is non binary and that there are six genders for crying out loud. Okay, so I believe as long as they continue insisting that biological sex doesn't matter, it doesn't matter in sports or in bathrooms or in locker rooms or in prison or domestic violence shelters, so long as they continue to insist this, I believe that Republicans should not stop asking the question. Every single candidate who is seeking public office I really believe should have to answer the incredibly simple question of should boys compete in girls sports? Easy, right? I would emphatically say no. I mean full stop, period. Or if their answer is some form of yes or deflection or silence, they refuse to engage in this conversation, then that should be disqualifying to any common sense American. If you cannot emphatically and confidently and without hesitation say that men cannot become women, that women do not need prostate exams, that men cannot get pregnant, that boys don't need tampons in their bathrooms, if you cannot confidently say those things, then why should I believe a single word that comes out of your mouth on any topic, any topic under the sun? You've already proven yourself to be a liar. And again, detach from reality. Big picture what is still at stake. As you guys know, as I've said in this, this episode, this isn't the finish line like we wanted it to be. Actually, it's really just the starting line. Title 9, it once again means something. Now we must work to make sure that every single state recognizes its significance for all Americans, but specifically for women and for girls. This case, it was never only about sports. And there are some good parts that have come out of the opinion. Whether that be the 90 portion of the ruling, whether that be the verbiage shift that we've seen that indicate broader implications. But this case, it was never just about sports. At least not in my eyes. I think sports simply revealed the broader question that our country has been wrestling with for years. And that is, does biological sex still matter under the law? And this week's decision says yes. And that is an enormous victory that we should certainly be celebrating. But until every girl in every state has the same protections, then the work remains unfinished. It shouldn't depend on your geography or your zip code. If you're Entitled to fairness. And then you have to also think, okay, I live in Tennessee. What if I have a. A meet or a competition in a blue state? Then what am I not protected? Then? Every girl deserves those protections. And for me, now, this is not just this abstract legal debate. It's personal. It's about my daughter. Now, that's who I think of. That's who I've thought of for the last nine months she's been alive. She's nine months now. It's crazy. I want her to know that if she earns a championship, it's because she's the best woman or girl, not because adults have redefined what a woman is. I want her to know that if she's told that she has equal opportunity to achieve and to succeed, that those words actually mean I want her generation to inherit a country that doesn't require courage to acknowledge obvious biological reality. A biological reality that you don't even have to learn. It's just innate. It's inherent.
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You know it.
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You know it in kindergarten, right? As someone with a brother, I knew, I mean, as young as I could remember that he and I were different. Okay? That's what I want. My daughter to inherit a world where it doesn't take courage to say that. That. Not trying to be hyperbolic, not trying to be, you know, to. To put on a big exaggeration here. That is what is still at stake. So this week, the Supreme Court, they took a massive step, an important step, an urgent step toward restoring that reality. But now it's up to the rest of us to finish the job. More work to do. Which I know that might make some people mad, right? They thought we'd get this ruling and Riley would just go away. Unfortunately not. There's still more work to do. I would love to go away. I would. I just went away to Montana last week, which was awesome to. To be hiking in the mountains. You put your phone away, you don't have to listen to the outside noise or to. To the comments online. Okay? That was, like, serendipitous for me. It really was. I would love to go away, but unfortunately for. For all my. My haters, it's not going to be that easy. As there's more work to do, I will continue fighting. And I know those of you who listen and watch the Riley Gaines show, who follow us over on Instagram hereillygain show will continue fighting as well. So thank you, guys. Let's relish in the win, but keep our foot on the gas. See you, Gu.
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Ra.