What is Riley Gaines hiding? We investigated…

[Brewdug]

This podcast appeared in my feed today via an affiliated show… I know it is naive but it’s still hard to believe how blinkered - and unbearably smug the US liberal wing is on this. This is rubbish ( from the ‘Center for Investigative Reporting’, which I now wouldn’t trust to tell me if it was raining), but still enlightening… wondered if anyone else had heard it.

A six month dig to discredit Gaines - we’re not supposed to notice that everyone they’re trying to gotcha in this won’t dignify any of it - that finds her hiding (spoiler alert) nothing?

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reveal/id886009669?i=1000738472306

If someone has doubled down on how hard it is to get into competitive swimmer for women, with competitive female swimmers telling them on a thread that it takes at least 20 minutes and needs two hands and cannot be done under a towel, you realise that some posters don't even care whether they stick to the facts or not.

And if that point is the sticking point to believing women that saw a man's penis in their changing room, then really says more about that poster than they probably want to understand.

No you can't. Have you ever put one on? Have you ever helped your child put one on? There is no way in hell you can put a racing costume on in a towel.

These suits are so tight the girls undo the straps on the shoulders in between races to avoid the stress on their shoulders. They need another person to help them do it.

I’m not sure Hellebore, I didn’t know much about it all in the first place to be honest. They checked out her tax returns to find her backers - a foundation backed by Betsy DeVos, the XXY brand, etc and were shocked she earns more now than she did years ago and is obviously in it for the money of Bad People.

Even if she was lying (which I don’t think she was) and even if he changed behind a towel. He shouldn’t have been changing there at all and he shouldn’t have been competing against women. So who cares?

Like the university threatening to blacklist them with prospective employers I believe

Yep it was done to me and they found someone on twitter with the same handle. This person then used defamation laws to threaten me through MN to try and get me to remove all post that didn't name them and even if it had would not count as defamation (it was provably accurate). The post stands as i refused to delete it and MN was able to tell the twat that I'm not the named person from twitter but wouldn't hand my name over without a crt order. Funnily enough no crt order came, but who would want to stand up infront of a judge and say they want a 3rd party to hand over someone's personal details so they can sue them for saying facts (that may or may not have been about you) that are provably true and what judge would say yes here have a crt order for that

I was having a pretty slow start to my day but here come @Howseitgoin and I’m full of laughs.

Anecdotally a man who was sexually harassing me came into a a female only swim changing room the other week. I saw his penis and was harassed by it. But apparently as he had at some point he used a towel I was ok. I just feel so relieved by the towel.

I no longer read Howes ' posts, but demonisation and character assasination is another method used to destroy 'the enemy'. It's probably because she's blonde, Republican and church going or something?

So, not a good thing to do, then?

I'd be a little more precise and say it's because she's blonde and Republican and church going and pretty. That combination seems to be triggering.

No, but you need to be aware it happens and know how to protect yourself. It's naive to think otherwise. Unlike some on some other sites, @ThatBlackCat has chosen not to doxx and post details that could allow other parties to take it much further.

She’s a woman who says ‘no’ to men.

Ok. Listening to it at 1.25 speed.

First thing is her father. Apparently, he is running for congress. (So what? This is not news)

Then there is mention of the coach Lars Jorgensen.

Her team mate Trinity Ward talks about the issues with Jorgensen, how he punished swimmers and was banned for his very poor coaching practices. Apparently, Riley doesn't mention these things as being part of her experience and that in her book she said that his tactics were for the purpose of motivating them. They then discuss Chip Klein, who was part of the coaching staff who sexually harassed and touched female swimmers.

The point they are trying to leverage is that Riley Gaines has not spoken out about this treatment and to use this to discredit her. The point is not acknowledged though, that she might not have been treated this way by her coach or Klein. This is not covered by these two podcasters. In fact, Madison Pauly says, "I mean, it would suggest that there might be more serious problems in women's sports than trans people." Without any registering that Pauly has just made her own priorities more important for Riley to be activating on than allowing Riley to make her own decisions.

Then they show Trinity Ward saying that back before Lia Thomas tied with Riley, Riley was not so supportive as Trump. And how surprised Trinity was to see Riley support Trump's commitment to protect female sports.

Torre then says 'It does make me want to really understand like what the, happened the story here. Like it takes a turn and where that takes us seems like it's worthy of again a a return to your 31page timeline about her life.' Um... no shit Sherlock. It won't take an investigative reporter to understand 'what happened'.

I am now 25 mins through this.

They now have another of RG's team mates talking about how Riley was talking with the coaches about how disgusting it was that Thomas was allowed to swim and how Riley did not want to get in the pool with him competing or be around Thomas. Her team mate said 'she was being such a bitch about the whole thing'.

This is actually very poorly put together as an 'expose'. Torre is more focused on denigrating Riley as often as he can.

Personally I don't agree with accusing someone of being male, but I understand why some posters do it.

I mean, it's impossible to fathom why a female poster would sell out women as a sex class and actively argue against their sex-based rights.

That doesn't mean women all have to agree just because we're women, but to sell other women down the river in favour of men's rights is contemptible.

It's a good thing as a woman to protect yourself, and warn others that we are conversing with a male.

In fact, if checking like this was a bad thing, this site wouldn't have something like Advanced Search to look up posters' posting history.

Being upset that a woman was forward thinking enough and had enough nous to check what was a really distinctive handle in order to not be sucked into trusting what a man says, rather than being upset that women have to do this in the first place, is gaslighting.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Riley Who? because I am somewhat aware of who Riley Gaines is. But only somewhat. She is an individual on the other side of the Atlantic who says things and does stuff that sometimes correspond to my opinions and values.

I didn't vote for her to represent me or GCness or anything. She doesn't.

I really don't care about anything Riley-Gaines-related except the fact that she was forced to share what should be a woman-only space with a man, and she's standing up to object to it. That relates to a matter of principle and an ongoing fight for women's rights and I do care about that.

Other Riley-Gaines-related stuff? Completely irrelevant to the issue of women's rights to women-only spaces.

Tbf I don't think all TRA posters or allies here are male, I do think there are a number of women too.

I just think that some behaviour is so obviously (to me) designed as an attempt to annoy or "upset" women, and in my experience that sort of behaviour only comes from males.

I've rethought my position slightly on Tandora because they obviously felt enough shame at their attack on one poster who was raped to have at least name changed. That's not a trait I imagine a lot of these male TRAs have. Of course I could be wrong, and a name change could also just be for a fresh start for a male poster, but I think it was the shame over incredibly bad behaviour towards another woman that did it personally.

"admission"! You do give yourself away. Blaming women for being in their own changing room and seeing something they shouldn't, and don't want to.

And you meant "citing evidence", not "sighting evidence", at 4:56.

for you @SexRealismBeliefs that's horrible, I'm sorry that happened to you!

Yet here you are posting on a thread about her.

RG has managed to be pretty successful in her fight for fair sports for women in the states. Of course she alone did not cause Trump to win the last election or get him to overturn Biden’s executive order that destroyed women’s sports there, but she was certainly influential.

Its easy to assume posters are male when they dont seem to have the experience to even imagine what it would be like for women. Its not just that hes exposing his penis, its that he's looking at women undressing too.

He's in no physical or sexual danger, is celebrated for exposure and voyeurism, in fact. And the women are ridiculed and are smeared for speaking out.

Its a very strange women who cannot put herself or her relatives in that situation. Women usually pretend it isnt happening and focus on something else - she wasnt going to win anyway, or something.

As well as everything that has been said here, i think riley gained is attacked because she knows her subject and is articulate. She can talk with authority about it, unlike her critics.

Now they have reached the point where they are discussing the actual race where Thomas and RG tied. And apparently, RG giving an interview and saying that she felt that NCAA put Thomas ahead of her by giving Thomas the trophy is the sign of the 'turning point' where RG became vocal about this issue.

The podcasters are acting like Riley had no reason to be upset. They are laughing about her reaction on camera. They discuss the story being picked up by the Daily Wire and Riley doing interviews.

Again, I am not sure what Madison Pauly believes she is 'exposing' here.

It seems that Pauly and Torre are surprised that interviewers mention sharing of the locker room. They are discussing it like it was unusual to discuss the implications of this and it seems like they think that Riley 'changed' her views in these interviews because some interviewers mentioned it.

At 34 minutes we come to the anonymous person, who has previously referred to Riley as being a 'bitch', as saying that Thomas only ever used a towel when she, personally, was around. And expressed sympathy that Thomas never asked to be put into that situation.

Then Pauly mentions with seeming surprise that Riley 'gets involved with politics'. ie. that Riley campaigns to the Kentucky state legislature to have male people excluded from female sports. Apparently, one month after the incident is far too quick in Pauly's mind.

And then, shock horror, Torre mentions that during the mid term election campaigns, Riley is in ads to call for people to support female sports. In the middle of a mid term election year, he emphasises. They even show Riley saying clearly that particular candidates support making female sport female only and that is why she is supporting him or her. She then spoke at CPAC and was introduced by Trump as a 'beautiful swimmer'.

The discussion then seems to take a twist that Riley is being used as a convenient tool in political campaigning because there are 'so few trans athletes'. Perhaps Pauly doesn't think that women can campaign on a topic using whatever platform they can kind, and instead is trying to paint Riley as a victim?

Pauly says this:

"But as you know, Pablo, like the problem that they have is that they just don't have a lot of trans athletes to point to. There are very, very few of them. So, how do you see that this is a real problem? It's extremely convenient to go point at somebody like Riley Gaines who can say, "Hi, I was a victim of this."**

• Who can go sit in the Kentucky legislature and say, "Look, there is a real victim of these policies." And that's I think why her story breaks through. Yeah. There just aren't enough examples of female athletes period who are losing to trans athletes because there aren't that many trans athletes in general. And that's I think why her story breaks through.*

Torres and Pauly both agree that this is an issue that shouldn't be given so much air time. And they are commenting how she is making comments not just for herself but on behalf of girls everywhere.

i think riley gained is attacked because she knows her subject and is articulate. She can talk with authority about it, unlike her critics.

I was being tongue in cheek 😬

Only a bloke would take over a thread completely like they are the OP - it’s not cricket……