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<\/source><\/picture>WASHINGTON \u2014 A female athlete is urging people to stop using the term \u201cbiological woman\u201d in the ongoing debate about the presence of trans-identified males in women\u2019s sports that she characterizes as \u201cspiritual warfare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Riley Gaines, a former female swimmer who has become an outspoken critic of policies allowing trans-identified males to compete on women\u2019s sports teams, addressed the crowd at the Family Research Council\u2019s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit last week.<\/p>\n
She recounted the story <\/a>she has told many times about how her career as a collegiate women\u2019s swimmer was turned upside down when a trans-identified male athlete began competing on the women\u2019s swimming team at the University of Pennsylvania after competing on the men\u2019s swimming team for three years.<\/p>\n Lia Thomas, the trans-identified athlete, faced off against Gaines, a student at the University of Kentucky, at a swimming tournament last year. While the two tied for fifth place, National Collegiate Athletic Association officials informed Gaines that Thomas had to pose for the picture with the fifth-place trophy. In her remarks Friday, Thomas lamented the \u201cphoto op\u201d in addition to the fact that she and other female swimmers had to share a locker room with Thomas, who still has male genitalia.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs a Christian myself, I know why this is happening,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s entirely spiritual warfare. It really is no longer a battle of right versus wrong or good versus bad. It\u2019s moral versus evil.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Gaines identified permitting trans-identified males to compete in women\u2019s sports as an example of \u201cdenying objective truth,\u201d specifically the \u201cmost basic of truths\u201d of \u201cman and woman\u201d as \u201cthe essence of humanity.\u201d She likened having to deny such a basic truth to an expectation to refute the idea that \u201cthe sky is blue.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, Gaines took issue with the fact that female athletes and other opponents of allowing trans-identified males to compete in women\u2019s sports have begun using the term \u201cbiological women.\u201d After recalling how she thought she \u201chad to make the distinction,\u201d Gaines proclaimed \u201cwe have to stop with that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot refer to ourselves as biological anything. That\u2019s admitting that there\u2019s an unbiological alternative and there\u2019s not. There is man and there is woman. There is male and there is female,\u201d she asserted as the crowd erupted into applause. \u201cThere is girl and there is boy and there is mother and there is father. \u2026 This idea that we can change what God created us to be is beyond absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n Toward the end of her remarks, Gaines stressed the importance of men working to \u201cfulfill their biblical role, which is to protect and provide,\u201d by standing up for the women in their lives who find themselves forced to compete against or share intimate spaces with trans-identified males. She brought up the adage stating \u201cHard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Gaines pointed to the 1940s, when the United States was engulfed in World War II, as \u201cthe last time we had a society full of strong men.\u201d According to Gaines, \u201cMen were lying about their age to enlist in the draft and now we have men lying about their sex to get into women\u2019s sports.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s this crazy juxtaposition but I think it proves this cycle that I\u2019m talking about,\u201d she added. \u201cWe can only hope that these hard times garner strong men.\u201d<\/p>\n Gaines identified the present state of the U.S. as the time in the cycle where weak men have created hard times. She concluded her speech by expressing concern about the \u201cchanging of the language\u201d in order to advance a narrative \u201cdenying truth.\u201d She specifically condemned the categorization of women as \u201cegg producers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The activist also listed \u201cthe silencing, the denying of objective truth and biological realty and biblical truth\u201d as well as \u201cthe breakdown of family, the breakdown of faith, the breakdown of our freedom such as the freedom of speech\u201d as examples of \u201ctextbook Marxism.\u201d She warned that \u201cwe\u2019re step-by-step going in that direction\u201d in a \u201cdownward spiral\u201d that amounts to a \u201cslippery slope.\u201d<\/p>\n The experiences of Gaines and other female athletes competing against trans-identified males as well as the biological advantages males have over females in athletics have prompted 23 states<\/a> to pass laws requiring athletes to compete on sports teams that align with their biological sex as opposed to their stated gender identity.<\/p>\n The states that have enacted such measures are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n