EXCLUSIVE: Riley Gaines, a former All-American swimmer from the University of Kentucky, didn’t hold back when reacting to President Biden’s promise to veto a bill that would prevent biological males from participating in women’s sports.
Speaking with Fox News Digital on Monday just hours after the White House released a statement slamming the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, or H.R. 734, Gaines said Biden’s veto promise was evidence he was putting a “radical minority” ahead of women across the country.
“The President has declared that science, truth, and common sense no longer matter. In opposing this bill, President Biden is catering to a radical minority at the expense of women, who are 51% of the population,” Gaines said.
President Biden (left) and former All-American University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines (right). (Getty)
“Equal opportunity, privacy, and safety in our sports shouldn’t be controversial. The women who once advocated for Title IX should be outraged as this goes against everything they fought for. Female athletes of all ages, levels, and sports deserve better,” she added.
H.R. 734 has not yet been passed by Congress, but is expected to come to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives sometime this week.
In a statement, the White House said it “strongly opposes” the bill on the grounds that it would “deny access to sports for many families by establishing an absolute ban on transgender students.”
Members of the House of Representatives participate in the vote for Speaker on the first day of the 118th Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 03, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
It went on to call the bill “discriminatory,” claimed such a law was “unnecessary,” and that it “hurts families and students.”
As part of the bill, educational institutions that receive Title IX funding from the federal government would not be allowed to “permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designed for women or girls.”
The bill says that the sex of an athlete would be recognized only by their “reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” The legislation would allow transgender female athletes to train or practice in a girls’ athletic program, but only if no biological female athlete is deprived of a roster spot.
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University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines reacts after finishing tied for 5th with transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200 Freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18th, 2022 at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta Georgia. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Democrats have made it clear that most or all of them will oppose the bill on the floor. The House Education and Workforce Committee approved the legislation in a 25-17 vote — every Republican voted for it, and only Democrats voted against it.
Fox News’ Peter Kasperowicz contributed to this report.
