"I'm done"

Thank you Riley Gaines

August 28, 2023

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Yesterday, Riley Gaines tweeted a clip of herself talking with Outkick news about the topic of male athletes competing in women’s sports. Riley, of course, is a swimmer who made it to the 2022 NCAA state championships, only to learn that she would be required to share a pool and a locker room with a man named Lia (Will) Thomas. She and Thomas ended up tying for fifth place in the women’s 200-meter race and the NCAA chose to give the trophy to him instead of her. This is what she said in the clip from yesterday:

I’m done referring to myself as a ‘biological female.’ I’m done with the nonsense. I’m done with the pandering. The whole term of calling ourselves ‘biological females’ I think is so crazy and it took me a while to come to this conclusion, really, because it’s true - we are biological females, right? But adding that word ‘biological’ is admitting that there’s a [non]biological alternative -

[IMAGE OF WILL THOMAS APPEARS ON SCREEN]

And there’s not. I’m done.

She’s right. Women are female. There is no kind of woman who is not female.

Regular readers know that I feel strongly about the importance of using accurate sex-based language. I gave a whole talk about it during the 2023 conference of ICONS (the Independent Council on Women’s Sports), where I had the pleasure of meeting Riley, among many other amazing female athletes.

Well said, Riley. I’m done with the nonsense and the pandering too.