Latest news with #transgenderSports
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Sport
- Forbes
Simone Biles Apologizes To Riley Gaines Following Trans Athlete Spat
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles apologized to former collegiate swimmer and right-wing activist Riley Gaines on Tuesday for a personal comment she made as the two argued over a championship-winning high school softball player last weekend, though Biles maintained children 'should never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system they have no control over.' TOKYO, JAPAN - JULY 27: Simone Biles of Team United States looks on during the Women's Team Final on ... More day four of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on July 27, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by) Biles, who blasted Gaines for calling the trans softball player a boy and told her to 'bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male,' said in her apology 'it didn't help for me to get personal with Riley, which I apologize for.' Biles said in her apology she was 'not advocating for policies that compromise fairness in women's sports' after telling Gaines on Saturday she should be 'finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports.' 'My objection is to be singling out children for public scrutiny in ways that feel personal and harmful,' Biles said. Gaines accepted Biles' apology in a post Tuesday, saying Biles knows what being body-shamed feels like and that she is 'still the greatest female gymnast of all time.' Gaines added sports are inclusive by nature but said competition is exclusive, 'So the idea of 'competitive equity' is nonsensical.' Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We're launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day's headlines. Text 'Alerts' to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here. The spat between Biles and Gaines began after Gaines noted the Minnesota State High School League removed comments from an X post showing the team that won the state's softball championship. Gaines said the removed comments were to 'be expected when your star player is a boy.' Biles called Gaines 'truly sick' and said the activist's larger-scale campaigning against transgender athletes was because she lost a race in college—a reference to Gaines' fifth-place tie with trans swimmer Lia Thomas in an NCAA championship event in 2022. Gaines said it was not her job or the job of any woman 'to figure out how to include men in our spaces.' She also made a comparison between Biles 'when she had to endure a predatory man,' showing a clip of her testimony on convicted mass sexual abuser Larry Nassar, and Biles 'when other girls have to endure predatory men,' showing her tweet defending the trans softball player. Gaines, who was a 12-time All-American swimmer for the University of Kentucky, became a right-wing activist following her tie with Thomas, which eventually led her to suing the NCAA over allegations it violated her civil rights by allowing Thomas to compete. The lawsuit has not yet been resolved. Gaines is one of the most vocal supporters of President Donald Trump's agenda against transgender athletes. The president signed an executive order in February banning trans athletes from women's sports at all levels and threatening to pull federal funding from schools allowing transgender athletes to participate in women's categories. There are fewer than 10 transgender athletes within the NCAA's roughly 530,000 student-athlete roster, according to Senate testimony given by NCAA president Charlie Baker last year. Simone Biles Tells Riley Gaines She's 'Sick' In Spat Over Trans Softball Champion (Forbes) NCAA Bars Transgender Athletes From Women's Competitions After Trump's Order Against Trans Participation In Women's Sports (Forbes)
South China Morning Post
16 hours ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Los Angeles unrest draws California Governor Newsom back into fight with Trump
California Governor Gavin Newsom resisted a fight with President Donald Trump over transgender youth in women's sports. He forced his way onto a runway tarmac to make peace with the Republican leader after the Los Angeles wildfires. Advertisement Just last week, he hesitated before speaking out when rumours swirled about a massive federal funding cut to California. Newsom's restraint ended when Trump usurped the governor's authority over the weekend by deploying the California National Guard to the streets of Los Angeles to quell protests against immigration raids. 'I'm still willing to do what I can to have the backs of the people I represent and whatever it takes to advance that cause, I'll do, but I'm not going to do it when we see the trampling of our Constitution and the rule of law,' Newsom said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. 'So we all have our red lines. That's my red line.' California Governor Gavin Newsom and US President Donald Trump in January. File photo: AFP Newsom said the arrival of troops in the largest city in the Golden State escalated tensions between protesters and law enforcement, which he blamed Trump for intentionally inflaming to sow chaos. Whether Newsom likes it or not, the president's actions also catapulted the governor to the front lines of a Democratic resistance against Trump that he has been reluctant to embrace after his party lost the presidential election in November.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Fans pile on sportswear giants and insist brand DROPS Olympic icon Simone Biles over trans controversy
Athleta, the women's athletic apparel brand owned by Gap Inc., is facing backlash over spokeswoman Simone Biles ' online feud with conservative activist Riley Gaines. 'Not 1 penny to Athleta until you drop Simone,' one critic wrote in response to an ad on X. The controversy began on Friday when Gaines retweeted a picture of a Minnesota softball team that recently won a state title with a player who is reported to be transgender. 'Comments off lol,' Gaines wrote in response to an X post that was prohibiting any responses. 'To be expected when your star player is a boy.' Gaines' post sparked a blistering response from Biles, who first criticized the activist's remark before accusing her of being built like a man. 'You're truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race,' Biles wrote. 'Straight up sore loser. You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!! 'But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!' Biles then responded to Gaines again, writing: 'Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.' Gaines' supporters lashed out at Athleta on X by accusing Biles of denigrating women. 'Your brand ambassador @Simone_Biles is not standing up for and in fact bullying women in sports,' one critic claimed. 'Nice.' 'Women should stand for and with other women athletes, in victory and defeat,' another added. 'Body shaming, using size attributes as an insult, some 'movement' this'll turn into when coercion and body shaming are its tools.' One critic wrote: 'Biles, as brand ambassador, needs to apologize for her repugnant comments AGAINST women and girls. Get to work, Athleta - time to pick our female side.' Several others offered some version of the 'go woke, go broke' refrain. Daily Mail has reached out to spokespeople for Biles, Gap Inc. and Athleta. Issuing a rebuke to Biles, Gaines posted video of herself being measured at 5-foot-5 – both below her listed height on Wikipedia and well shorter than most American men. 'Figured I would whip out a tape measure to settle this debate,' Gaines said in the clip she posted on X. Wikipedia says I'm 5-foot-9. Simone Biles, yesterday, told me to bully someone my own size and then said: 'Ironically, that would be a man.' Gaines used Biles' dig to remind her audience about the origin of their online beef: the debate over transgender athletes in female sports. 'Number one, acknowledging there are differences between men and women, number two, this is my 6-foot-4 husband,' Gaines continued, motioning towards her English-born swimmer Louis Barker. Like her husband, Gaines was also a swimmer at the University of Kentucky , which is how she began advocating against the inclusion of transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports. It was in 2022 that Gaines famously tied for fifth place with transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship. Referencing Thomas by her former name, Gaines claimed the ex-Penn swimmer is the same height as her husband, although online records put her three inches shorter at 6-foot-1. Regardless, Gaines continued to make her point that she is not, in fact, as big as a man. 'Clearly I don't have shoes on,' Gaines said while recording her reflection from a full-length mirror. Issuing a rebuke to Biles, Gaines posted video of herself being measured at 5-foot-5 – both below her listed height on Wikipedia and well shorter than most American men Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines react after finishing tied for 5th in the 2022 200-Freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming Championships The outspoken conservative continued: 'I have to stand on it or haters are gonna say we have a Republican tape measure.' She then turned the camera toward the tape measure, revealing her height to be 5-foot-5.5. 'Five-foot-five,' she said, adding: 'And a half. 'This is for the Wikipedia people who list me at 5-foot-9, this is for Simone Biles who tells me to bully someone my own…' Gaines said before the clip ended abruptly. As of Saturday evening, Wikipedia was listing Gaines at 5-foot-7. It's unclear if it was changed recently. And if it matters: Biles is listed at 4-foot-8.
CNN
6 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Nebraska is the latest state to ban transgender students from girls' sports
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed into law Wednesday a measure banning transgender students from girls' sports, making the state the latest to keep transgender athletes from competing on women's and girls' teams. Pillen signed the law flanked by dozens of lawmakers, women athletes and other advocates — including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who has made a name for herself as a vocal advocate of banning transgender athletes from women's sports. The measure passed by the Nebraska Legislature last week broke a filibuster by a single vote cast along party lines. It was pared down from its initial form, which also sought to bar transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding with their gender identity. Sponsors agreed to drop the bathroom and locker room ban when one Republican — Omaha Sen. Merv Riepe — declared he would vote against it otherwise. The measure was first introduced in 2023 by then-freshman Sen. Kathleen Kauth, but failed to advance as lawmakers angrily argued over Kauth's other bill that sought to bar gender-affirming care for transgender minors under the age of 19. An amended version that banned gender-affirming surgery — but not all gender-affirming care — for minors later passed and was enacted that year. On Wednesday, Kauth promised to revive her bathroom and locker room ban next year, reiterating her rejection that people can determine their own gender. 'Men are men and women are women,' she said, and urged voters in Riepe's district to pressure him to support it. Republicans behind the sports ban say it protects women and girls and their ability to fairly compete in sports. Opponents say with so few transgender students seeking to participate in sports, the measure is a solution in search of a problem. Fewer than 10 transgender students have applied to participate in middle school and high school sports in the state since 2018, the Nebraska School Activities Association said Wednesday. At least 24 other states have adopted similar bans. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order this year intended to dictate which sports competitions transgender athletes can enter and has battled in court with Maine over that state's allowing transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska denounced the measure. ACLU Nebraska Executive Director Mindy Rush Chipman said the ban 'slams the door shut' for some transgender students to fully participate in their school communities. 'This ban will only create problems, not solve any,' Rush Chipman said, adding that 'the constant targeting of LGBTQ+ Nebraskans must stop.'
The Independent
6 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Nebraska is the latest state to ban transgender students from girls' sports
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed into law Wednesday a measure banning transgender students from girls' sports, making the state the latest to keep transgender athletes from competing on women's and girls' teams. Pillen signed the law flanked by dozens of lawmakers, women athletes and other advocates — including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who has made a name for herself as a vocal advocate of banning transgender athletes from women's sports. The measure passed by the Nebraska Legislature last week broke a filibuster by a single vote cast along party lines. It was pared down from its initial form, which also sought to bar transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding with their gender identity. Sponsors agreed to drop the bathroom and locker room ban when one Republican — Omaha Sen. Merv Riepe — declared he would vote against it otherwise. The measure was first introduced in 2023 by then-freshman Sen. Kathleen Kauth, but failed to advance as lawmakers angrily argued over Kauth's other bill that sought to bar gender-affirming care for transgender minors under the age of 19. An amended version that banned gender-affirming surgery — but not all gender-affirming care — for minors later passed and was enacted that year. On Wednesday, Kauth promised to revive her bathroom and locker room ban next year, reiterating her rejection that people can determine their own gender. ' Men are men and women are women,' she said, and urged voters in Riepe's district to pressure him to support it. Republicans behind the sports ban say it protects women and girls and their ability to fairly compete in sports. Opponents say with so few transgender students seeking to participate in sports, the measure is a solution in search of a problem. Fewer than 10 transgender students have participated in middle school and high school sports in the state over the past decade, according to the Nebraska School Activities Association. At least 24 other states have adopted similar bans. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order this year intended to dictate which sports competitions transgender athletes can enter and has battled in court with Maine over that state's allowing transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska denounced the measure. ACLU Nebraska Executive Director Mindy Rush Chipman said the ban 'slams the door shut' for some transgender students to fully participate in their school communities. 'This ban will only create problems, not solve any,' Rush Chipman said, adding that 'the constant targeting of LGBTQ+ Nebraskans must stop.'
