On April 8, the conservative nonprofit organization Turning Point USA will be bringing anti-transgender athlete activist Riley Gaines back to San Francisco State University after more than two years. In collaboration with the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute, TPUSA will be hosting the controversial former athlete at the Seven Hills Conference Center.
The last time TPUSA’s SFSU chapter hosted Gaines, the event resulted in a massive protest against Gaines and an accusation by Gaines of assault by a student during the protest that the University Police Department found no evidence of.
Gaines was a former competitive swimmer at the University of Kentucky. Since then, she has retired from swimming and has become an advocate for banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.
An hour before the event, a group called Mutual Support will host a soccer game outside of the conference center in protest against transphobic speakers and in support of trans rights, according to flyers found on campus. At approximately the same time of the event, the Associated Students Queer & Trans Resource Center will host an event titled “Centering Trans Voices.” This event will feature a panel on the lived experiences and advocacy of transgender individuals, with several professors from campus participating. Alexa Huaman, the center’s director, is hosting the event to help transgender people on campus feel safe and included.
“It’s a really scary time for trans and queer people, so I’m really making this event to be like, ‘Hey, it’s crazy, but it’s always been a crazy path for us,’” Huaman said. “It’s nothing new, but this is what’s happened in the past, and this is why it’s relevant now.”
Takumi Sugawara, president of SFSU’s TPUSA chapter, says his organization is bringing Gaines back in part because they want to rewrite the script of the last Gaines event.
“We want to have her back because last time, while the event itself was successful, the way it ended wasn’t the way that we wanted to end,” Sugawara said.
He described the ending of that event as Gaines being held hostage, locked in a classroom for hours in fear of protesters. That event spurred a large protest against Gaines that resulted in significant media coverage.
Rochelle Henare, a track and field Gator athlete, and her fellow teammates were invited to the event via an Instagram direct message from Kaitlynn Wheeler, an ambassador for the Riley Gaines Center. Henare is contemplating attending TPUSA’s event in opposition and does not support the aims of Gaines and her team.
“Personally, I’m not a fan,” Henare said. “There should be no reason that you’re mad that there’s 10 trans people in NCAA out of the maybe 50,000 that there are.”
Charlie Baker, the president of the NCAA, has stated that there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes out of 510,000 athletes currently competing in college sports. This is less than 0.01% of the organization’s athletes.
Henare brought up a fact in Gaines’ story — Gaines tied for fifth place with Lia Thomas, rather than being tied for first.
“If it really were that unfair, the athlete that you’re complaining about definitely would have gotten first place,” Henare said.
As a student-athlete, she believes the real fight for women’s sports is in fighting against the recent cuts to many California State University sports teams.
Leading up to the event, TPUSA has been tabling in the quad to promote Gaines’ arrival. This has led to students engaging with the club directly. Gisele Chua, an English education student, discussed the event with Sugawara, who was tabling.
“I guess SF State should not prohibit free speech — I know that’s a constitutional right, and they would act aggressive if we didn’t allow them to be on here, but I personally disagree with them being here because SF State is very progressive and liberal,” Chua said. “We don’t want hate speech, and that’s the thing; what they want to say is hate speech because they’re transphobic and they don’t want transgender people to participate in sports.”
TPUSA’s event with Gaines will take place at the Seven Hills Conference Center. The QTRC’s event, “Centering Trans Voices” will take place from 6-8 p.m. at the University Club in the Cesar Chavez Student Center, and the soccer game will take place at 5:30 p.m.
