Pelican State News

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Riley Gaines, a former Division I swimmer and star athlete at the University of Kentucky, offered a "devastating rebuttal" to a statement by an LGBTQ activist who asserted that men struggle to beat Serena and Venus Williams, Citizen Free Press tweeted.

"Devastating rebuttal from Riley Gaines," the tweet said. "An LGBTQ activist asserted that men struggle to beat Serena and Venus Williams. But Gaines had the receipts. Gaines: 'Both Serena and Venus lost the 203-ranked men's tennis player and they are phenoms.'"

Gaines was responding to an answer given by Kelley Robinson, the president of the far-left Human Rights Campaign who was answering questions from Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who was asking if she believed that males have an athletic advantage over females, according to a Fox News report. Robinson claimed that Serena Williams could defeat male tennis players. "There's been this news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in Tennis," Robinson said. And it's just not the case. She is stronger than them." Gaines responded that, "Both Serena and Venus [Williams] lost to the 203rd ranked male tennis player."     

Both Gaines and Robinson were offering testimony at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, as the panel reviewed the Biden administration’s proposed amendments to Title IX that include transgender issues in schools and colleges, Fox reported. The hearing, titled “Protecting Pride: Defending the Civil Rights of LGBTQ+ Americans,” included commentary from both sides of the debate, with Gaines, now a spokeswoman for the Independent Women’s Voice, offering an emotional testimony to the Senate hearing about how changes are already impacting athletes.                 

Title IX is a federal civil rights law overseen by the U.S. Department of Education that was enacted in 1972 which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. The department announced the proposed changes to Title IX in April.

According to Fox News, the changes would ensure that no school or college that receives federal funding would be allowed to impose a "one-size-fits-all" policy that categorically bans transgender students from playing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Such policies would be considered a violation of Title IX.