Former championship swimmer turned women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines slammed U.S. women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe for being a “classic case of virtue signaling.”
On Monday, Rapinoe said she would "absolutely" support and welcome transgender athletes onto the U.S. Women's National Team, even if that athlete replaced a biological woman.
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“She’s actually someone who fought for women in sports. She fought for equal pay, she fought for equal access, equal resources — all of those things in comparison to the women’s U.S. national soccer team to the men’s,” Gaines told Fox News Tonight. “Now she is undermining her fight entirely."
“And notice how earlier this week she announced her retirement. So, she’s done playing. This is a classic case of virtue signaling,” Gaines added. “She wants to be seen as kind. She wants to be seen as inclusive, but it is not inclusive what she’s fighting for — it’s actually exclusive.”
Gaines said Rapinoe’s willingness to welcome biological males who identify as females on to a women’s team is “exclusive to the very female athletes who the women’s sporting category was created to protect,” yet the 12-time All-American swimmer noted such protection is quickly dissipating.
“It’s happening at every sport, every division, every level, in every state, all across the world, really, in every country. To deny that is entirely disingenuous,” Gaines said, noting that those who disagree are often silenced.
“They are silenced because of messages like Rapinoe’s, who says you’re a bigot if you think this. You’re anti-trans if you think this. Well, that’s not true. Biology is not bigotry, and Megan is a contributing factor in people being silent.”
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Gaines added that she is concerned about “how many girls have to get hurt in their sport, especially in physical contact sports like soccer” before the integrity of women’s sports will be returned to the standard of biological females strictly competing against other biological females.
“How many girls have to be exploited in a locker room? How many girls have to lose out on opportunities before people — feminists like Megan Rapinoe — care?” Gaines questioned.