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Riley Gaines and the anti-trans grifting machine
Riley Gaines tied fifth with Lia Thomas in a national swim meet final in 2022, and never in the history of sport has a fifth place been leveraged to such depths. Since her tie Gaines has weaponised her animosity towards Lia to the point where the mere mention of Lia’s name in the media is one of distain, horror, and the absolute dehumanising of her identity. What goes unsaid is that Gaines has used her vitriol to obtain fame and fortune that no other swimmer, including Thomas, from the class of ’22 has managed. Even the winner of that race goes unremarked, showing just how outsized a presence Gaines has on American public consciousness.
All of this would be problematic enough, yet as Gaines mentioned in her social media in October 2025 in response to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez telling her to get a job Gaines’ job is one of motherhood and looking after her family. Nothing against women who choose to be stay at home mother, all power to them, but in combination with her cleaving to the right Gaines has found a second niche through which to leverage her anti-trans values, that of “wife and mother”.
The wife and mother trope has long been used by conservatives in the context of “speaking as a mother” to undercut any debate surrounding women’s rights, bodies, and children. Motherhood does not convey a mystical aura upon a person, and while…
