Anti-Trans Activist Riley Gaines Just Tried To Claim That Trans People 'Silenced' Her—And People Are LOLing Hard

Clothing brand XX-XY Athletics, who made transphobia their brand—literally—released a new ad on X featuring their poster girl, former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines.

In the newest bid for attention for the clothing company, Gaines pulled tape off her mouth then claimed she was "silenced" by trans rights activists. She added that pro-trans university administrators also destroyed her dream of becoming a dentist.

She said:

"For daring to say that men and women are different, I’ve lost friends, of course, the media has been dishonest about me, I’ve been called every name in the book."

"My university told me I’d never get a job. No employer would ever hire me because they would look me up and see that I’m a transphobe."

Career or educational counseling that suggests not becoming the poster girl for bigotry might seem like sound advice to most people, but not to Gaines.

"They knew I wanted to go to dental school, and they said that I would never get into a dental school. No dental school would ever even look at my application if I spoke up about this."

You can see XX-XY Athletics' latest attempt to cash in on Gaines here:

But even on raging transphobe Elon Musk’s social media platform, people had no sympathy for Gaines.

Gaines has been singing this tune for four years now and even MAGA minions are bored with it.

@realcopeaganda/X

It's unclear if Gaines ever tried to get into dental school.

The direction of her life changed after she learned that altering her initial response of fully supporting trans athletes, but being upset about a trophy, to a vehemently anti-trans stance was extremely profitable.

In the 2022 NCAA Women's Swimming Championships, Gaines tied with transgender woman Lia Thomas. As with most competitions, awards are made in advance for the top positions, but generally only one of each.

Since there was only one fifth place trophy, Thomas was handed that one and Gaines held the sixth place one for the official photos. Gaines later received her fifth place trophy in the mail.

It was that perceived slight—being the one who got her trophy via mail—that Gaines initially complained about. But conservative media was desperate to find any perceived harm caused by trans women in sports and coming up empty.

Probably because they aren't dominating like right-wing pundits continuously claim they would and there are so few of them. In December 2024, the NCAA reported fewer than 10 openly transgender student-athletes competing out of over 510,000 total participants, or less than 0.002%.

Trans athletic bans are another Republican solution searching for a problem. So conservative media latched onto Gaines.

Gaines told the Daily Wire:

"In the 200-yard NCAA women’s final I tied Thomas. Despite going the same time down to the hundredth of a second, the NCAA gave Thomas the trophy as they explained this was necessary for ‘photo purposes’ and told me I had to go home empty handed."

Gaines's original tale of woe was about a cisgender woman being mildly inconvenienced by a trans woman—who could have been any woman who tied Gaines for the same finishing position in the final race. One person would get the fifth place trophy, one would hold sixth and get theirs later in the mail.

If Gaines had gotten her trophy at the meet and Thomas was mailed hers, Riley Gaines the right-wing transphobic activist wouldn't exist. Maybe she'd be a dentist.

In her first Daily Wire interview in March of 2022, Gaines said:

"I am in full support of [Lia Thomas] and full support of her transition and her swimming career and everything like that, because there's no doubt that she works hard too, but she's just abiding by the rules that the NCAA put in place."

The rest of Gaines shtick didn't start until an appearance on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show where the host led the witness (Gaines) to the right words. After that point, Gaines began misgendering Thomas and referring to her as a "biological man" because it led to a more lucrative payoff.

Within months of her race against Thomas, Trump was summoning Gaines onstage at CPAC, saying:

"Where’s our beautiful, great swimmer?"

Soon Gaines would have a six-figure foundation bearing her name; a brand endorsement deal with XX-XY Athletics; a podcast; a byline on several books; deals to sell ivermectin, supplements, and financial services; and speaking tours commanding a reported $25,000 per appearance.

It's too bad trans people silenced her.