Former NCAA swimming champion and women’s sports activist Riley Gaines held a rally for the Stone Ridge Christian High School girls’ volleyball team in California after the school forfeited a playoff game rather than play against a transgender opponent.
Stone Ridge Christian High School, from Merced, California, forfeited a Northern California Division 6 tournament against San Francisco Waldorf last month because the rival team had a male identifying as a girl on its girls’ volleyball team.
School officials cited their Christian beliefs in a statement reporting their reasons for the forfeit. They added that they “have a duty and responsibility to care for the health and safety of our athletes. So, after consulting with our students, coaches, and staff, we have made the difficult decision to forfeit Saturday’s game. Standing for Biblical truth means more than the outcome of a game.”
At the rally she organized on December 4, Gaines praised the team for refusing to play against a male player, and she discussed her own experiences being forced to compete against a male.
“We knew having a man undressing next to us in the locker room, standing at six foot four, we knew that was wrong,” Gaines exclaimed. “We knew the silencing that we were facing from our universities, our institutions, how really, they effectively silenced us, muzzled us. We knew all of that was wrong. But none of us, including myself, had the courage that these girls on this court today had.”
The girls at Stone Ridge Christian made a bold stand by boycotting a volleyball game against a male athlete. Today, @Riley_Gaines_ & @WheelerKaitlynn spoke to them, honoring their courage and inspiring others to fight for fairness in sports. #BOYcott #ProtectTitleIX pic.twitter.com/ajNdYSsUPw
— Riley Gaines Center (@RileyGCenter) December 5, 2024
Of course, Gaines was forced to compete against male swimmer Lia Thomas, who competed for UPenn during the 2022 college swimming season.
She spoke about the situation at a Donald Trump campaign in October.
“I could share the grotesque details of what it was like being forced to undress, inches away from a 6-foot-4 man who watched us strip down to nothing, while he did the same, exposing his fully-intact naked male body,” she said. “There are no words to describe the violation and the betrayal, the humiliation that we felt.
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