Riley Gaines: Why Americans are FINALLY pushing back on gender ideology

Dec 23, 2025 - 17:28
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Riley Gaines: Why Americans are FINALLY pushing back on gender ideology


Women’s sports, children’s innocence, and biological reality are at the center of America’s cultural struggle — but Riley Gaines tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey at AmFest that the tide is finally turning.

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However, it took some serious struggle on Gaines’ part before she began to see a change.

“It was really hard to read some of the things that are being said about you. I mean, bear in mind, I’m a 21-year-old college student who merely just wanted to compete fairly, right? Seems like the bare minimum,” Gaines recalls.

“For saying the things that I said, such as ‘there are two sexes’ and ‘you can’t change your sex’ and ‘each sex is deserving of equal opportunity of privacy and of safety’ — for saying that, you’re vilified,” she explains.


While at the time, Gaines was hurt by the negative response, which included being called names like “racist” and “misogynist,” it’s now “water off the duck’s back.”

“I put all of the confidence and the security that I have in the fact that I’m fighting for the hope and the promise of eternal life. And once you do that, it shifts your perspective to understand that nothing of this world matters,” Gaines says.

Because of the courage of women like Gaines, Stuckey feels that the “tide is turning in a really good way when it comes to female sports.”

“You’re really in the thick of it,” Stuckey says. “Like, you see the activist attacks. You’re seeing what’s really going on on college campuses. Do you feel like the tide is turning?”

“110%,” Gaines answers. “You compare now to even a year ago, it’s very different. I think we’re seeing more people with the willingness and the boldness to say that men can’t become women. Men can’t get pregnant. Women don’t need prostate exams. Tampons don’t belong in boys' bathrooms.”

“Obviously, it sounds pretty cliche, but I do believe courage begets courage. And so when you have people like yourself, or you have President Trump in the Oval Office, that gives the people a lot of cover, right?” she continues.

“They see him doing it or you doing it, and they think, I can do that,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Fibis I am just an average American. My teen years were in the late 70s and I participated in all that that decade offered. Started working young, too young. Then I joined the Army before I graduated High School. I spent 25 years in, mostly in Infantry units. Since then I've worked in information technology positions all at small family owned companies. At this rate I'll never be a tech millionaire. When I was young I rode horses as much as I could. I do believe I should have been a cowboy. I'm getting in the saddle again by taking riding lessons and see where it goes.