On Wednesday, Kelley Robinson, the President of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which professes to be the largest LGBTQ civil rights organization in the country, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the issues of states banning transgender procedures for minors as well as allowing biological men to play on women’s sports teams. She was an expert witness for the Democrats, and not a very good one, as women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines instantly demolished Robinson’s talking point claiming that biological men don’t have physical advantages over women.
Sen. John Kennedy asked Robinson, “You don’t think that a biological male has a physical advantage in sports over a biological female?”
“Not as a definitive statement,” she replied.
“How many female members of the NBA do you see?” Kennedy asked.
“Well, I can say that, you know, there’s been this news article about men that think that they could beat Serena Williams in tennis, right? That they think that they could actually score a point on her. And it’s just not the case, she is stronger than —”
Kennedy quickly brought the question to Riley Gaines, who immediately pointed out an inconvenient fact.
“Both Serena and Venus lost to the 203rd ranked male tennis player,” Gaines pointed out, noting that both Serena and Venus are phenoms among women. “My experience — my husband, he swam at University of Kentucky, as well. In terms of accolades and in terms of national ranking, I was a much better swimmer than him. He could kick my butt any day of the week—without trying.”
Dem witness: "There's been this news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in tennis. And it's just not the case. She is stronger than them." @Riley_Gaines_: "Both Serena and Venus lost to the 203rd ranked male tennis player." pic.twitter.com/MSAnV6IA5t
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 21, 2023
Gaines is, in fact, absolutely correct. In 1998, both Serena and Venus Williams claimed they would be competitive on the men’s Tour, specifically claiming that they could defeat any male player who ranked above 200 in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world rankings. German tennis player Karsten Braasch accepted the challenge and beat both of them on the same day.
“The German, who at the time held position number 203 in the ATP rankings, defeated the two US tennis legends with the scores of 6-2 and 6-1, respectively, despite drinking a few beers before the match and being seen smoking a cigarette,” Tennis World recalls.
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Gaines competed against UPenn’s Will “Lia” Thomas in the NCAA championships last year and managed to tie him, but was denied a trophy in favor of Thomas.
Gaines also described the trauma of having to share a locker room with Will “Lia” Thomas, who, despite “identifying” as a woman, still had male genitalia and was allowed to undress and expose his body parts in front of real women who were also undressing.
Gaines schooled Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who only seemed to care about how policies protecting women’s sports affect transgender-identifying people. “Senator Durbin, in your opening statement, you had mentioned this ‘rhetoric.’ You had mentioned that ‘what message does it send to trans individuals?’ And my comeback to that is: what message does this send to women, to young girls who are denied of these opportunities so easily, their rights to privacy and safety thrown out of the window, to protect a small population, protect one group as long as they’re happy? What about us? That is the overall general consensus of how we all felt in that locker room.”
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