Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines was a topic of conversation Friday night on «Real Time with Bill Maher.»
Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., and pundit Piers Morgan discussed Dylan Mulvaney and the Bud Light association debacle when the conversation turned to the fact that Lia Thomas won an NCAA championship in freestyling. 500 meters last year and tied with Riley Gaines in a separate event. Porter said that people should be able to have a civil debate about unlimited self-identity and what that means for a society.
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Penn swimmer Lia Thomas and Kentucky Wildcats swimmer Riley Gaines at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Georgia Tech on March 18, 2022. (Brett Davis-USA Today Sports)
Porter added that he disagreed with Gaines and that sports bodies should be the ones to determine whether transgender people can compete against biological men or women. Morgan chimed in and asked what exactly Porter disagreed with.
«I think what she’s done is try to change this, we talked about people converting, using things to get likes and clicks…» Porter said, pointing to Maher.
Morgan added: «That’s not what he’s doing.»
PROTESTER ARRESTED OUTSIDE RILEY GAINES SPEECH AT UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
SEC champion swimmer Riley Gaines speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas on August 6, 2022. (Reuters/Go Nakamura)
«All I’ve seen her do is stand up for women’s rights to justice and equality. In fact, she ran against Lia Thomas and it was obviously unfair,» Morgan said. «Lia Thomas won one of the races at the NCAA Championships by 50 seconds against a group of biological women who just couldn’t keep up. That can’t be right. It can’t be fair.»
Porter said it’s something sports bodies should handle.
«And by the way, Riley is speaking for herself, and that’s her prerogative and I respect her free speech,» Porter said, while Morgan maintained that Gaines was «speaking for all athletes in the world.»
Morgan said there were two solutions to the problem: transgender people could compete against members of their biological gender or start creating an open category.
katie porter and springs morgan (fake images)
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«What you can’t do is continue to allow more and more trans athletes to start decimating women’s records, in some cases irrevocably,» she said. «It’s just not fair.»