Riley Gaines claimed she was exposed to male genitalia without consent
An all-American swimmer has called out the NCAA after she claimed she was "exposed to male genitalia" without her consent after sharing a locker with transgender athlete,
Lia Thomas.
Riley Gaines, a 12-time All-American and 5-time SEC champion with Kentucky, has joined in with the number of people who have voiced concerns about Thomas' eligibility to compete.
Thomas has been the star of the show in the pool, smashing countless records and while the majority of the athletes are happy to allow her to compete, Gaines admitted that it was the incident in the changing rooms that was the biggest issue.
Speaking to
Fox News about sharing the locker room with her rival, she said: "We were not forewarned beforehand that we would be sharing a locker room with Lia.
"We did not give our consent, they did not ask for our consent, but in that locker room we turned around, and there’s a 6’4" biological man dropping his pants and watching us undress, and we were exposed to male genitalia.
"That to me was worse than the competition piece. Not even probably a year, two years ago, this would have been considered some form of sexual assault, voyeurism. But now not even are they just allowing it to happen, it’s almost as if these large organisations are encouraging it to happen."
Thomas is now believed to be starting the process of hormone replacement therapy but has yet to undergo full surgery.
Gaines meanwhile has been actively campaigning for the NCAA to make separate locker rooms for transgender athletes.
https://twitter.com/NoraUtd/status/1620933129077723137
"People are terrified, especially speaking from my experience of talking to other NCAA swimmers specifically. Lia Thomas’ teammates even," she added.
"They are told their school has made their stance for them. They are told if they feel uncomfortable seeing male genitalia in the locker room, they should seek counseling resources. They're told they will never get into grad school if they speak out.
"All of these terrible, awful things that are not true. They are told, of course, that they will be called a bigot and hateful and transphobic, but it doesn’t make you any of those things to acknowledge that there are two sexes, you cannot change your sex and women deserve opportunities."
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