Riley Gaines: Our kids are desperate to hear the truth

Brian is off all week.

This is Mark Reardon. I'm actually doing the show this morning from St. Louis, and our next guest, Riley Gaines, the author of Happy No-Sake State, I believe was in my state. Might have even been in St. Louis recently. Riley, were you in St. Louis? How are you? Happy Presidents Day.

Hope all is well. Well, thank you so much for having me, Mark. And yes, I was. I did a library reading down in Branson, Missouri, and I did. I went up to St. Louis, and I had a press conference with the Attorney General, A.G. Bailey. Yeah, A.G. Bailey. He's really been a leader on the forefront of a lot of this gender ideology movement and pursuing litigation and really defending the rights of parents and of women and the safeguarding of children. So could not have been more glad to stand alongside him.

Well, Andrew is great. And as you know, I kind of I talk about sometimes I talk about St. Louis in two ways as ground zero. One with the Mike Brown shooting from nearly 10 years ago. But on this issue in particular, look, I've been talking about the trans issue for several years now.

And believe me, I appreciate your voice. But we had, you know, Washington University, prestigious elite university and Children's Hospital here in St. Louis. Jamie Reid, the whistleblower, came out. It was about this year at this time or last year at this time that her report came out. Now, interestingly enough, Riley, and you've seen this, there has been slowly but surely a little bit more of that narrative from people even in this field that have been more vocal in the New York Times and the L.A. Times.

It's slow. And of course, they get all the backlash that you do. But a little bit more bravery in the last year, I think, and maybe because of Jamie. Well, you are certainly right.

It was it was pretty cool because when I was in St. Louis, they had three school board whistleblowers who were there who blew the whistle on really the insanity of what's going on in the education system. And the people, the higher ups even above them and what they're pushing for, again, pushing on on the most vulnerable. Right.

The children. So you're you're totally right. I think the tide slowly but surely. It's certainly turning.

Parents are waking up. I think medical professionals are waking up. I mean, just just people in general, they see the insanity of what's going on. And now, unfortunately, we're seeing the repercussions and the consequences of what's going on. And I think people who maybe would have considered themselves apolitical didn't really want to get involved before they're involving themselves now. And did this happen again over the weekend or last week at Ramapo College?

Now, this is a Division three school. But what happened with a biological male that blew away the women? Right. So, Mark, did it happen again? It's happening, it seems, every day now.

But you're exactly right. You said what happened? Look, it's the same story every single time. A mediocre man on the men's team decides to switch over to the women's team to become a record smasher. And what happened at Ramapo College is certainly no different. Again, a male switches to the women's team. He broke multiple school records at their NJC conference championships.

And again, this is college. Right. So he's taken a scholarship. He has taken a roster spot. He has taken a spot on the championship team.

There's only a limited number of spots. He took a spot from a deserving, hardworking girl. And it breaks my heart because having the platform that I have, I received messages from his teammates or from other girls who have competed against him and they feel so lost. They don't know what to do. Several of them reached out to me and told me, look, we feel as if we will be reprimanded if we speak out about this. We don't know what to do, but we know this is wrong.

And look, I understand that because I was there. The threats and the risk, they're real. And it's a really terrible position to put these 18, 19, 20 year old girls in.

So what is your advice there? I have a couple of questions about the bravery issue. One of them is about the media, but on the athletes themselves, because even in the situation with this swimmer from Ramapo, you had the teammates, the girls that were with this particular swimmer holding arms together, hugging, smiling. But you know, behind the scenes, some of them don't feel this way.

So what is your advice if you hear from a parent or an athlete, they don't want to get canceled. They don't want to become the focus of backlash. I get that as someone who's a somewhat public figure.

What do they do? I know it's a difficult position to be in. And look, I will happily admit that I changed my mind on this. At first, I didn't think it should be up to the girls to sacrifice anything. Right. We're the ones who worked hard to get there. There are people who are in place who were supposed to be protecting us. It's their job to stand up for us. But the minute I changed my mind, it was actually when the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act was introduced in the U.S. House. And it fell entirely on party lines, meaning two hundred and nineteen Republicans voted in favor of protecting women and girls in sports.

And all two hundred and three Democrats, every single last one of them, all two hundred and three Democrats voted in opposition of protecting women and girls in sports. And that's when I realized, you know, up until this point, I thought legislation and policy, that's how we fix this. And ultimately it is.

But I realized in that moment, gosh, what a naive thought to wait for for people to do the right thing unprovoked. We have to take action into our own hands as as everyday people, as consumers, as female athletes ourselves. And so what we can do and what needs to be done. And again, I know it's easier said than done, but don't go when the gun blows.

Let the boy race on his own. I think that's the most powerful and the most effective way to send the message that we're look enough is enough. We're saying no. You know, and I had Greg Stube on my show in St. Louis last week talking about the Save Women's Sports Act. And the thing that's frustrating, I think even more frustrating about that vote from where I sit in the middle of the country is. And Congressman Stube said that, look, this is not even close. It's an 80 20 issue, right?

It's not like 52 to 48 or something like that. I have I have to say nice things about my friends here, Riley, who are Democrats, because the common sense Democrats who I know in this part of the country, they're just as outraged as you and I are on this. Now, one of the questions that I have and I'm really curious about your answer. I highlight this all the time. Why? Maybe this is rhetorical, Riley. But the legacy sports media, the ESPNs of the world, our local newspaper, the athletic, whatever sports publication you want to. This story about this male swimmer or any of the stories in cycling, et cetera, those are legitimate sports stories.

No matter what your opinion should be, that should be something that should be featured in sports journalism. But it's not. It's just silenced constantly. They won't touch it, which is incredibly frustrating.

Yes, for for everyone. Right. It's their job to report on stories. We're not asking them to give their opinion on it. Just report on it.

And they won't do it. I think a lot of that, of course. Well, ESPN in particular is owned by Disney. So so that should tell you everything you need to know right there. But what this movement is driven by, whether that's the medicalization side, whether that's the social side, whether that's what's happening in sports or in corporate America.

I mean, every realm. This movement is driven by money or I guess the fear of losing money. And so, look, ESPN.

Right. They don't follow red or blue. They follow green. They follow where the money is taking them. And they will realize very quickly that this hurts them. Because, like you said, this is a winning issue.

And look at Bud Light, for example, the most well-known example. Lost twenty seven billion dollars and their next commercial was a big, burly man on a motorcycle with a camo can. So it shows you they're following the money. ESPN. And again, in particular, they had during Women's History Month last March, they had a special highlighting Leah Thomas as this brave and inspiring and stunning woman who has overcome so much adversity and persecution to achieve this seemingly impossible.

What I thought was incredibly distasteful, tone deaf to their audience. And they paid for it. All those things. And I highlighted that when it happened. Look, I have a she's about turned nine in a couple of weeks and she's a swimmer. She just started in a nice swim club here in St. Louis. And when people hit me on Twitter or, you know, other social media, Riley, on this issue, they say, why do you care so much? I say, because I have a little girl who's an athlete now and she doesn't have a penis and I think it's important.

And I don't understand why this isn't discussed more publicly in broader ways. But thankfully, you're there and I think you're a hero. And I consider myself a Riley Gaines superfan. And for some reason, this is terrible on the part of the host, I was unaware of the book Happy No Snakes Day. And I know it came out a few weeks ago.

So tell me more about Happy No Snakes Day. And my apologies that I was unaware. Well, it is aimed for children. And unless you identify as a 12 year old, then I don't blame you.

But you're exactly right. I partner with Brave Books, who has been phenomenal. It's it's important that we have these alternatives, right?

Alternatives again and anything you could imagine, whether that's makeup, whether that's skincare, whether that's your phone provider, clothing outlets. Of course, Brave Books is an alternative to Scholastic, which, as you and I know, Scholastic is the group, the organization that's putting these these age inappropriate books in children's schools. So I partnered with Brave Books. We wrote the book Happy No Snakes Day, which is about telling the truth. Despite being afraid, despite what the consequences might be. And so that was a lot of fun. It's you know, I think the attack on our children, as we've said multiple times, it has it's prevalent and it is only increasing.

And so that's who we need to reach with this message. And look, the book isn't political. Of course not. It's not partisan. Brave Books say they do a great job of teaching pro-God, pro-America, pro-family values.

So could not be more excited to have partnered with them. I am most certain that this book is already in the majorities of elementary school libraries and schools across the country, Riley Gaines, right? You had to be overwhelmed with just library orders for the book. Definitely. And that certainly continues. Well, what I mean, you're you're trying you know, the point about that would be there are books along those lines that deal with issues of gender and of race that are in school libraries and they're watered down. So allegedly, they're appropriate for kids, I would argue. And I think you would, too, that some of these should not be in schools, which is what some of the fight has been about. But there would really realistically be outside of the God stuff.

I guess they'd flag that no reason to keep a book like this out of a school library, but you won't even get a sniff. No, no. Which, again, you can't be overly surprised by it, but I have been just incredibly grateful for the support that I've had from from parents of young kids. Right. Or grandparents. I think now more than ever, these people are desperate to hear the truth and to be taught these actual good virtues. Right. Because the other side, they throw around words like compassion and empathy and inclusion, which in Syria are often the wonderful things.

But when they say inclusion, they really mean exclusion. And make no mistake, it's not compassionate to ask a young girl to undress in front of a man. That's not what compassion is.

So it's time we take back these virtues and I guess reclaim their original definition of what these words mean. Now, I know you mentioned you were here in St. Louis or, you know, in Branson as well, but are you still on an active tour of spreading the word about this? And then seemingly every time you go somewhere and hopefully didn't happen too badly here in my state, but you have these organized groups that go against you chasing into the back of a room, et cetera, right? Always.

And it certainly did happen in Missouri, which shows you there's pockets of this everywhere. But, yeah, a big push of mine and what I've dedicated a lot of my time to in these next coming months is speaking on college campuses. As we said, the youth is so important and that stands true for my generation, Gen Z.

Being a recent college graduate myself, I know how hostile and unwelcoming these environments are to people with, I mean, Christian conservatives, really. So that has been a big push of mine. I will be speaking at UNC tomorrow and then South Carolina and then Clemson.

I spoke at Hannibal LeGrange actually in Missouri. Oh, yeah. Just trying to engage the youth. It is so important because it is our future.

It's up to us to put this country back on the right track. Have you ever had an exchange with someone who is on the other side and just asked the issue, maybe it's a parent, just ask the issue of fairness and how they think it's fair that a daughter like mine, for example, or, you know, even swimmers that are at the NCAA collegiate level should have to compete against biological men and just put them on the spot and say, really, you think that's fair? Is the answer always, well, they're a girl now, right? They're a woman. They've transitioned.

Yeah. You know, the answer that I get a lot is that, well, it's about more than just winning. You know, what about this person's happiness?

What about their feelings? You know, they could kill themselves if you don't affirm this. And they make it this really what I would call emotional blackmail. And it's effective, right? Because, of course, I don't want to be responsible for anyone's death.

I don't want to have blood on my hands like they constantly say. But that's the tactics they use. It's they tried to blow this out of proportion. They tried to make you feel guilty.

They tried to gaslight really young girls. And that's what they've done. And that's how it's been effective.

It works. Believe it or not, when you tell a young girl and this happens time and time again, especially among academic institutions, when you tell a young girl she will be guilty of murder if she advocates for fair play and privacy in areas of undressing. But I've reached a point now where, of course, I don't want those things. Of course not. But we cannot back down from the truth at the expenditure of our rights as women and our opportunities and our fairness and our safety and our dignity, quite honestly.

Absolutely. I'm praying for you. I'm rooting for you. I know my daughter is as well, even though she doesn't have, you know, the mindset to understand all of this. Someday she will. Riley Gaines, thank you so much. Keep up the fight and hopefully we'll talk again. Absolutely. Thank you, Mark.