Riley Gaines visits RNC with message for New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democrats who claim to support women

Riley Gaines, the former NCAA swimmer who competed against transgender athlete Lia Thomas, visited the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, where she spoke with Fox News Digital about her message to New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democrats who argue they are the party of women’s rights.

Gaines, a guest of New York GOP and former Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, spoke with Fox News Digital outside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a day after James sued Nassau County, New York, Executive Bruce Blakeman over a recently enacted county law that would ban biological males from participating in women’s sporting events at county-run parks and facilities.

“I wish I could say I was surprised by the attorney general’s actions, but as we’ve seen in her history, it doesn’t surprise me. She seems to go after anyone who has a divergent viewpoint from the narrative that she and her party are pushing,” Gaines told Fox News Digital, expressing gratitude to Blakeman.

“It’s tough to be in one of the biggest counties and do what he did, but it’s a common sense issue,” Gaines said outside the convention center. “This is not a battle between the right and the left. This is a humanitarian issue. The message that people like the attorney general of New York are sending is that girls don’t matter, our safety doesn’t matter, our sports don’t matter, our privacy doesn’t matter in our locker rooms and our equal opportunity doesn’t matter.”

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James, who also led lawsuits against former President Trump’s businesses in New York, filed a lawsuit Monday against Blakeman, claiming that “Nassau County is once again attempting to exclude transgender girls and women from participating in sporting events while claiming to support equity.”

The state attorney general said in a statement that she and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) had already successfully overturned Blakeman’s “transphobic” executive order and that “now this discriminatory law must be overturned as well,” adding that “here in New York, every person has the right to be exactly who they are without discrimination, and my office will always protect that right.”

Democrats, including President Biden, campaigned on being the party of women’s rights and aligned themselves on the abortion issue before November, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But Gaines argued that Republicans are truly the party that best protects women’s well-being when it comes to transgender athletes competing for women’s and girls’ titles and beyond.

“The Democratic Party is far from being a party of women or for women. They can’t even define what a woman is,” Gaines told Fox News Digital. “So how can you claim to stand for something you can’t define? I’m here to share the simple message that men and women are different, but it’s much broader than just a sports perspective.”

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“The Democratic Party is a total denial of the truth,” Gaines said, “the objective truth, the biological reality, a truth that we have never had any trouble understanding in the nearly 250 years of our country’s existence, and that truth is man and woman.”

Gaines, who a year ago endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, threw his support behind Trump on Tuesday. DeSantis, who ended his 2024 White House bid in January, also spoke in support of Trump as the new official Republican presidential nominee on the convention stage later Tuesday night.

“In November, I will be voting for Donald J. Trump. And I encourage every woman, every mother, every sister, every daughter, to vote for Donald J. Trump as well,” Gaines told Fox News Digital. “There is only one party, there is only one ticket that will stand up for gender-based protections and fight for gender-based rights like safety, privacy, and equal opportunity. Whether it’s sports, prisons, domestic violence shelters, bathrooms, sororities, locker rooms, dorms.”

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed House Resolution 165, which seeks to block implementation of the Biden administration’s new Title IX protections, which overhaul the Education Amendments Act of 1972. The new interpretation redefines the definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity.

“210 Republicans voted to protect women and girls in sports, fulfilling the original intent of Title IX,” Gaines said, while criticizing the 205 Democrats who voted against the resolution.

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“Every single father and mother of their own young daughters, the 205 Democrats who voted against protecting women and girls in sports are in our dorms, our locker rooms, our bathrooms, our scholarship halls, and they’re urging us to speak out,” Gaines said. “Again, how can a woman vote for this, knowing that it’s not just about herself, but it’s about the next generation? That’s why I’m voting for Donald Trump.”