DES MOINES — Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky Women’s swimmer and 12 time All-American swimmer, called for women’s sports to exclude transgender women at Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ fifth annual Harvest Festival in the Elwell Family Food Center at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Saturday evening. 

During her address at Reynolds’ annual campaign event, Gaines denounced transgender women’s participation in women’s sports and called for banning their eligibility. Gaines said that not only the debate over their participation in Women’s sports, but transgender identities in general as a spiritual affront. 

“As a Christian myself, I entirely see this as a spiritual warfare,” Gaines said on Saturday evening. “It is no longer a battle of right versus wrong or good versus bad. This is about moral versus evil.” 

Gaines is known for her opposition to transgender women in women’s sports after tying with Lia Thomas for fifth place in the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships. 

During her speech on Saturday, Gaines said she saw the extreme discomfort, tears, and anger with Thomas in the locker room and through conversations with other competitors. 

“I can wholeheartedly attest to the whispers of anger and frustration from these girls who, just like myself, had worked their entire lives to get to that meet,” Gaines said.

Gaines has since advocated for laws banning transgender women from women’s sports and for rule changes in college and professional sporting organizations. 

Gaines is part of a larger movement of conservatives to exclude transgender women from women’s sports. Gaines, like other proponents of the movement, has said that transgender women are more biologically adept and thus it jeopardizes the fairness of the sport. 

A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that Transgender Women can retain their athletic edge years after transitioning — much more than the one year the NCAA recommends currently. 

However, LGBTQ+ advocates say that the bill unfairly targets transgender women barring them from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.  

Gaines now works with women’s organizations like Independent Women’s Voice, an advocacy non-profit that advocates for women’s welfare. According to Influence Watch, a website that provides transparency for public policy influencers, Independent Women’s Voice is the right-of-center advocacy arm of Independent Women’s Forum. 

In March 2022, Reynolds signed a bill into law that banned transgender women from women’s and girl’s sports in Iowa. 

Reynolds has long been a supporter of banning transgender women in women’s sports. Reynolds echoes those sentiments during her remarks on Saturday. 

Reynolds sympathized with Gaines and said what happened to the athlete, “ should never happen again, and in Iowa — it never will.” 

In the 2023 Iowa Legislative Session, Iowa Republicans passed three anti-LGBTQ+ bills according to a legislation tracker by One Iowa, a LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. 

Reynolds touts record 

Reynolds touted her long list of accomplishments from the recent legislative session during her remarks at her Saturday night campaign event in Des Moines. 

Reynolds outlined a laundry list of goals for the 2023 legislative session in her Condition of the State address in January. 

Reynolds touted her main priority of the legislative session — her school choice legislation — during her Saturday remarks. 

The Iowa Department of Education recently released news that nearly 19,000 students were approved for Reynolds’ Private school voucher program. The program had originally projected 14,000 educational savings account applications, budgeted at around $106.9 million, but has since gone well over initial predictions. The savings accounts give $7,600, approximately the amount the state provides per student to public schools, to parents of eligible students to spend on tuition, books, and other school related expenses.  

Iowa House Minority Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, expressed concerns about the recent news in a statement Thursday.  

“The $139 million Reynolds is handing over to the special interests and private schools should be going to the kids in Iowa’s public schools,” Konfrst said. “Iowans want us to focus on the real issues facing our students today. That means strengthening public schools, addressing Iowa’s teacher shortage, getting students the one-on-one attention they deserve, and expanding school-based mental health services to support students.”

Reynolds also mentioned her success in reorganizing Iowa’s state government. In March, Reynolds signed a bill into law that reorganized the state government. Pitched as a way to save money and make navigating Iowa agencies easier, the bill is a hallmark of Reynolds small government priorities. The bill took 37 cabinet agencies and reduced it to 17, without reducing services, Reynolds claimed. 

However, opponents said the 1,600-page-bill was rushed and was flawed. Recently, a commission of state officials and governor appointments recommended the removal of over half of the state’s boards and commissions. 

Reynolds also pointed to the red wave that washed over Iowa last November, kicking out two decades-long incumbents.