Riley Gaines spoke to more than 1,000 people Sunday about the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sports, but it’s what happened afterward that left everyone buzzing.
The event in Nebraska featured several speakers, including Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a University of Nebraska softball player and State Sen. Kathleen Kauth. The state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would prohibit transgender athletes from competing against the gender with which they identify.
U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) tweeted a recap of the event, saying “We are sending a message we will protect girls’ & women’s sports from the terrible policies attacking them!”
However, when the Lincoln Journal Star tweeted coverage of the event, state Sen. Megan Hunt responded, “It can be hard, when we’re young, to not win a trophy sometimes. But we grow up and realize it’s not the end of the world and we don’t need to turn that loss into our entire personality.”
Gaines responded to the attack on Monday.
Imagine missing the point this much lol It’s not about the trophy & never has been,” she tweeted. “That trophy is meaningless & devalued entirely. It’s about the message it sends to us. & it’s the same message you’re sending…that we don’t matter. Nebraska girls deserve better than you.”
Hunt did not respond directly to Gaines, but she did respond to another Twitter post that called Hunt “extremely disrespectful” and an actual idiot.
“If it seems disrespectful, it’s because I don’t respect people who are part of this discriminatory movement to push LGBTQ ppl back into the shadows,” Hunt wrote. “There’s no ‘trans debate’ or ‘trans question.’ There’s just trans people and people who don’t want there to be trans people.”
[Fox News]
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.