Former NCAA swimmer and women's sports activist Riley Gaines held a rally for the Stone Ridge Christian High School girls volleyball team on Wednesday after the school forfeited a playoff game rather than play against a male opponent, Breitbart reported.
"The girls at Stone Ridge Christian made a bold stand by boycotting a volleyball game against a male athlete. Today, @Riley_Gaines & @WheelerKaitlynn spoke to them, honoring their courage and inspiring others to fight for fairness in sports. #BOYcott #ProtectTitleIX," the Riley Gaines Center posted on X.
Stone Ridge Christian High School, from Merced, California, forfeited a game against San Francisco Waldorf in October during their California Division 6 tournament because Waldorf has a male player identifying as a female on the girls volleyball team.
Officials from Stone Ridge released a statement saying the schools has "a duty and responsibility to care for the health and safety of our athletes. So, after consulting with our students, coaches, and staff, we have made the difficult decision to forfeit Saturday's game. Standing for Biblical truth means more than the outcome of a game."
Gaines praised the team at a Dec. 4 rally and recalled her own experiences of being forced to compete against a male athlete.
"We knew having a man undressing next to us in the locker room, standing at 6-foot-4, we knew that was wrong," Gaines stated. "We knew the silencing that we were facing from our universities, our institutions — how really, they effectively silenced us, muzzled us. We knew all of that was wrong. But none of us, including myself, had the courage that these girls on this court today had."
In October, Gaines spoke at a rally for President-elect Donald Trump and described the humiliation she and other female teammates had to endure at the behest of NCAA officials. "I could share the grotesque details of what it was like being forced to undress, inches away from a 6-foot-4 man who watched us strip down to nothing, while he did the same — exposing his fully-intact naked male body," she said. "There are no words to describe the violation and the betrayal, the humiliation that we felt."
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.