Riley Gaines Dragged After Complaining About WNBA Game In Minneapolis Filled With 'Disgruntled Lesbians'

On August 2, anti-trans activist and MAGA grifter Riley Gaines attended a WNBA game in Minneapolis between the Minnesota Lynx and the Indiana Fever. Gaines was there with the co-founder of an athletic brand that's entire marketing strategy is centered on transphobia.

Gaines is the spokesperson for the brand which has mounted several anti-trans publicity stunts at women's sporting events and a women-focused sports bar in Portland, Oregon. Their apparel was also recently sported by a school trustee and Moms for Liberty member during a Nevada school board meeting.

Gaines and her cohort got a pre-game photo op with Fever player and fellow transphobe Sophie Cunningham, before Gaines started milking her attendance at the game to draw attention to herself with appearances on Fox News.

On Saturday, Gaines appeared on Fox News' The Big Weekend Show and talked about attending her first WNBA game over a month before.

Gaines stated:

"I went to the WNBA game in Minneapolis which, right, you can expect how Minneapolis, what the fanbase as it pertains to the WNBA in that city looks like, and it was a bunch of like disgruntled lesbians."

You can watch Gaines' comments here:

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Professional victim Gaines—whose entire career is based on losing to four cisgender women in an NCAA swim meet and tying for fifth with a trans woman—added that it "felt like" the entire arena booed Sophie Cunningham and:

"It felt like they had been advised to only put people on the jumbotron who were draped in their trans flags."

Gaines had made the booing claim previously and was quickly fact-checked by game coverage and videos from fans in attendance. Cunningham, a 30-year-old shooting guard in her eighth WNBA season, barely draws notice with an average of 8.3 points per game.

Like Gaines, her anti-trans comments have garnered her more attention than her athleticism had over the course of her career.

People called out Gaines for lying about the Minnesota Lynx fanbase and for attacking another group of women—first trans people and now lesbians—while constantly claiming to be protecting women and girls.

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Feminist News Now wrote of Gaines' comments:

"Riley Gaines went to a WNBA game and came away calling the crowd a 'bunch of disgruntled lesbians.'"

"Think about that."

"This is someone who has built an entire public career around demanding that women’s spaces be protected, respected, and centered. But when she entered a space full of women — many of whom simply don’t share her politics or applaud her worldview — suddenly those women were worthy of ridicule."

"...That is not defending women. That is demanding control over which women are allowed to count."

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Lesbian isn't an insult or a slur. Neither is transgender.

But bigots like Gaines use the terms as if they are, weaponizing people's identity to promote themselves and their brand.