Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines on Wednesday said she doesn't understand the response given by officials at San Francisco State University praising the protesters after she was attacked by trans activists at an on-campus Turning Point USA event last week.
"They applauded these students for their bravery and for listening in such a difficult conversation," Gaines told Newsmax's "John Bachman Now." "I didn't realize expressing how men and women are different is controversial. It shouldn't be controversial for these students, this administration, or even the campus police."
Gaines' comments come after Jamillah Moore, SFSU's vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, emailed students to thank them for participating in the "peaceful" protest.
"It took tremendous bravery to stand in a challenging space," Moore wrote. "I am proud of the moments where we listened and asked insightful questions. I am also proud of the moments when our students demonstrated the value of free speech and the right to protest peacefully."
Said Gaines: "I'm, of course, grateful for all the police forces, but these campus police did a very poor job of de-escalating the situation and allowing me to safely evacuate the building.
"We were supposed to meet an hour and a half before the event to go over an exit plan if something of this nature happened. The police didn't show up."
Gaines added that she was barricaded in a room for three hours with no way to safely leave and that there were protesters outside the door "trying to negotiate money for me if I wanted to make it home safely, and the dean of students was negotiating with them."
Gaines, who was at the university to deliver a speech about protecting women's sports, said earlier this week she plans to file a lawsuit, and on Wednesday said that there must be consequences for what happened.
"These people need to be held responsible because they do this in the disguise of love and compassion and kindness and tolerance, but in reality, that is not what I was met with," Gaines said.
Gaines also told Newsmax that she wants to know where feminists such as Billie Jean King or Megan Rapinoe are while the fight is going on to protect women's sports.
"They're both now actively fighting for women to lose out on these opportunities," said Gaines. "Both of these women are now fighting for trans inclusion in women's sports, [and] the hypocrisy and the double standard, and the irony behind it, are all so evident."
Gaines also said she thinks freedom of speech is being suppressed not only for herself but against conservatives.
"We deserve the right," Gaines said. "We're entitled to the right of our freedom of speech. When we have these administrations, these universities who are hindering a clear depiction of what's going on at these campuses, these are the people who are educating the next generation, and that's a really chilling thought that they're teaching them to not have an open dialogue."
And if someone disagrees, Gaines added, "immediately they're the aggressors. They're the ones who are committing these acts of violence, and it's truly chilling to think of that."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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