WATCH: Riley Gaines Delivers Disturbing Details to Congress About Experience With Lia Thomas and Assault at SFSU

AP Photo/Darren Abate

Former All-American swimmer and now women’s rights activist Riley Gaines finally had her chance to tell Congress a little bit about the insanity that has descended upon women’s sports with the allowing of biological men to compete against women, and how dangerous the response from the left has been on the subject.

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First, she spoke about what it was like changing in the locker room with a group of women and then a 6’4″ male with full genitalia — Lia Thomas — comes in and changes in front of you.

“The overwhelming majority of us, girls, felt so uncomfortable. We felt betrayed. We felt belittled,” Gaines testified before the House Homeland Security Committee Hearing On Left-Wing Organized Violence.

“Of course, in the locker room, especially, it’s awkward. It’s embarrassing. It’s, again, it’s this feeling of, the best word to describe it is traumatic. No one protected us. No one stood up for us, and so, that’s exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing.” [….]

“Our safety, our privacy, it doesn’t matter,” she said. “We should smile and step aside and allow these men into our space, or else you’re a bigot.” [….]

“We were not forewarned we would be sharing a changing space,” she testified. “No one told us. No one asked for our consent. We did not give our consent to undress in front of a male. Yet, the only time we became aware of this is when it was presented in front of us, and it was too late.”

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Gaines said it was horrible that a 6’4″ male with full genitalia could come in and change in front of them as they were changing and that they — as 18 to 22-year-old girls — could do nothing about it because it was sanctioned. She said she left the room and went to an official to ask, “How is this allowed to happen?” He looked at her and told her they solved the problem by making their locker room “unisex,” “‘So, it’s not a big deal.'”

That’s insane: meaning any man could just come into their changing room. That was their “solution.” You could see her dad, the man seated behind Gaines, shaking his head, he was so disgusted by the official’s response.

Gaines said Lia Thomas’ teammates faced the same problem and the administration told them if they “feel uncomfortable seeing male genitalia” they could get counseling. So much for caring about or believing in women’s rights. That’s why she wanted to speak out, Gaines said.

Gaines also described what happened when she was assaulted and held hostage for three hours by radical protesters at San Francisco State University.

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Gaines said protesters flooded the room with their “fists raised” and a woman with the campus police had to rush her out into the hallway where there was an even bigger mob, so they had to retreat to an office and barricade themselves in there. She said that she was held hostage there for about three hours.

“I was certainly held against my will,” she said. “The mob screamed vengeful, racist, violent, awful things at both myself and the officers, and I received no assurance that I would get out of that situation.”

The protesters demanded a ransom for her release, Gaines said.

“I heard an adult administrator, who I learned to be the dean of students, from outside the door trying to negotiate my release with the students,” she testified.

“They said my appearance on campus was so traumatic that they were owed something,” she added. “They were under the false notion that the university paid me to be there, therefore, they only thought it was fair that I should pay them if I wanted to leave.”

She said instead of properly ensuring her safety, the school praised the students after the assault and hostage-taking.

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It was horrible not only to undergo such an incident but that their response also encouraged the radicals who were trying to shut down free speech.

One of the Democrats, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD), was confused thinking this had to do with Stanford and Gaines had to correct him.

Once again, you have a Democrat not seeming to know the facts in the case but to be fair, there was a similar problem with radical leftists trying to intimidate a judge who was speaking at Stanford. His confusion reveals just how big the problem is; it’s even confusing these guys because it happens so often now that any speaker who says something that the left doesn’t like is met with crazy protests meant to intimidate and shut down speech. His confusion proves the point of the hearing and what a problem left-wing organized violence is.

Gaines and Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) went on Fox News and also noted that the problem is that this is all backed up by “state-aligned media” as the radicals are painted as “mostly peaceful” when indeed there was all kinds of violence and, in the case of Gaines and other speakers, chilling speech.

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