Back in 2022 college swimmer Riley Gaines tied for 5th place in the 200-yard freestyle with Lia Thomas during the Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. While 5th place is a remarkable achievement at this level of competition, it would not have made the news except for the fact that Thomas is a transgender woman and Gaines decided to take up the anti-trans banner. From a cynical standpoint, one might argue that Gaines is now cashing in on the manufactured anti-trans grift beloved by the right. To be fair and balanced, one might also assert that Gaines is acting on deeply held beliefs and confronting what she perceives as a moral threat and not just as an opportunity to gain fame and sell books.
On her website, Gaines presents two of the main concerns advanced by anti-trans activists in the context of sports. Gaines asserts that “I can attest to the tears that I witnessed from finishers who missed being named an All-American by one place.” This can be seen as pointing towards the fairness argument against trans athletes, at least those who transitioned from male to female. The gist of the argument is that even after transitioning, a transwoman will have an unfair advantage in competition and hence should be banned. It is worth pointing out that Gaine’s one example of her own experience is used to “prove” that a problem exists. However, even if one thinks that it is unfair for a transwoman to compete with other women, even when transwomen were allowed to compete, the number of transwomen athletes was tiny. Put bluntly, it seems crazy to have a political frenzy over one example where Gaines tied for 5th place.
As I have argued in other essays, one can have a good faith discussion about fairness and competition. For example, while Thomas did knock another woman out of being an All-American, all the woman who placed also knocked other women out of being All-American. It is reasonable to infer that the women who placed had advantages over the women who did not (or just had a better day). They might, for example, have had a genetic advantage in endurance, strength or other qualities. Or maybe they have wealthier parents who were able to pay for better lessons. Or they went to schools that provided better support for swimmers. And so on. But to be fair and balanced, we collectively have decided to address fairness is simple ways, such as size, age, and sex and perhaps one could make a moral case that while other advantages do not matter morally, the alleged advantages of being a transwoman do matter. As I am not an expert in sports performance science, my opinions about whether a transwoman has, on average, an advantage after transitioning have no weight—so I will leave this to experts operating in good faith. There is, of course, the obvious fact that men, on average, have an advantage over women and this is commonly appealed to in making the anti-trans case. But, back to Gaines.
After Riley Gaines spoke during the 2022 CPAC, Trump said, “Just to show you how ridiculous it is, look at me. I am much bigger and much stronger than her, there is no way she could beat me in swimming, do we all agree?” When I saw this on video, I felt a nanosecond of empathy for Gaines. I know female athletes who have endured men disparaging their athletic ability and have seen how much this hurts them. This empathy quickly passed, since she had chosen a road on which misogynistic views are displayed like billboards. But I would have loved to see Trump try to swim against her. If he did, Vance would probably be president now. I freely admit that Gaines could easily beat me in a swimming race, unless she has gotten way out of shape. I’m sure that at her peak she could have beaten me when I was at my running peak as a varsity college runner—because running speed does not translate well to swimming speed. As an experienced athlete, I have respect for female athletes and know how strong they can be—which is why I see the anti-trans tactic of belittling them as fundamentally insulting to my fellow athletes.
To be fair and balanced, one can say that Trump was just joking and not making the absurd claim that he could beat Gaines. But some men do think that an average man can beat even a top female athlete, as evidenced by the infamous 2019 survey in which 12% of British men thought they could win a point against Serena Williams (3% of women thought they could). There is also the obvious fact that the anti-trans argument must assume that even a transitioned transwoman will consistently be a superior athlete.
Underlying this view, obviously enough, is the misogynistic view that women are inferior and need to be protected (the fairness argument often includes the dramatic claim that transwoman athletes will cause excessive injuries). While Gaines professes to want to protect female athletes, this view of women is weaponized against cis-gender athletes in the form of false accusations, public harassment and demands that they prove their sex. The focus on this also distracts from other concerns, such as women’s sports being underfunded. Shockingly, misogynistic views end up hurting all women. As such, even if Gaines does have good intentions, the ideology she is supporting will hurt women like her. But at least she can sell some books at collect speaking fees. But perhaps she is sincere and thinks she is doing good while she sells books and collects speaking fees.
The second point made by Gaines on her website is that “I can attest to the extreme discomfort in the locker room from 18-year-old-girls exposed to male body parts and having to undress with a male watching in the same room.” To her credit, she does not seem to accuse Thomas of planning to assault her and the “girls”, which is another standard attack on transwomen. To be fair and balanced, there can be a good faith discussion about the safety of women and who should be allowed in what spaces. However, transwoman as predator rhetoric is a bad faith argument, as it is not backed up with evidence. It also embraces sexist views of men as predators and women as helpless victims.
Speaking of predators, it did look like Trump tried to kiss Gaines at CPAC and that she turned away in disgust. To be fair and balanced, Gaines denies this and claims Trump was merely speaking to her and that she turned her head to listen. Even if Gaine’s is telling the truth, Trump has been accused by over 25 women of various forms of sexual misconduct. Most famously, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the E. Jean Caroll case. Ironically, it has been alleged that Trump walked into dressing rooms while contestants (including some as young as 15 or 16) were changing or naked. Given Gaine’s statement about how she felt about Thomas being in the locker room, it might seem odd that she would support Trump.
While Trump is just one example, the allegations against him show the obvious: transwomen are not the threat that other women should worry about, it is the cisgender sexual predators that present a real danger. This also illustrates the bad faith of many of the anti-trans activists: they profess to want to protect women, but support Trump.
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