Riley Gaines, an advocate for women’s sports and former competitive swimmer, came to Oakland University on April 15 to speak against transgender women competing in women’s sports. Like with conservative speaker, Chloe Cole’s visit, police officers and protestors descended onto campus — as well as a divided student body.
“Gaines became widely known for speaking out against transgender women competing in women’s sports,” the Network of Enlightened Women at OU (NeW) said in their event description. “Particularly after competing against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA Championships.”
Gaines hosted a meet and greet before the event with local athletes and had Founders Ballroom C full of attendees ready for a talk on her experience competing against Thomas, how she started on activism and the mobilizing of youth groups.
“Riley’s event was amazing, I’m very thankful for the opportunity to hear her speak and share the truth about men being in women’s sports,” Jana Simpson, former college athlete, said. “We’re going to have disagreements. It’s going to be something that happens on issues, but we can relate to the standard of, ‘we’re all human.’”
With increased security measures — following incidents at other universities — Gaines’ event started around 6 p.m. While local protesters against transphobia remained outside the Oakland Center this time, Gaines opened with her 2023 experience at San Francisco State University (SFSU).
“I was naive in thinking that students would come with an open mind, but instead they came with pitchforks and torches,” Gaines said. “Hundreds of protesters ambushed me, I was held for ransom by these men wearing dresses.”
The SFSU police department suspended the investigation after the claims of crimes were found to be unfounded, Golden Gate Xpress, a student publication, reported. While Gaines said 40 officers had to escort her out of SFSU, at OU, six officers stood at the ballroom, with the other five officers lined the OC’s second floor — a step up from Cole’s visit.
“As we’ve gotten closer, all the things that I’ve heard from people are good things,” Caterina DiCosmo, president of NeW at OU, said. “I’ve had a couple [of] negative comments, but they are outweighed by the positive.”
Gaines talked about her swim career, her husband’s experience with acquiring a green card, the family tradition in sports and her hopes for mobilizing young women during a time of: “win after win since Trump got back in.”
“Having Riley coming out and saying, ‘this is what is happening,’ and making that change to inspire others to be like ‘I need to make a change’ was important,” DiCosmo said. “Having her come to Oakland for everybody to see what steps we can take to make sure that these instances are no longer happening was important.”
A smaller protest was no less energetic. Community members with signs, pride flags and a megaphone gathered at Elliott tower to later move to the main entrance of the OC during hours of wind and light rain.
“We had a lot of people who were new show up, which I was really happy with,” student organizer, Jaime Allen, said. “It’s not just the same folks. We’re cycling through organizers and students during what I would argue is not a great time to organize — the end of the year is when people tap out.”
Allen explained that the anti-transphobia message is not only for students, but for the university administration as well. “The want is for that to be something that materializes and maybe not [just] rhetorical support,” Allen said.
“We don’t want the speaker to go unchallenged. We don’t want people who are walking by to see that and think that that’s what Oakland University is,” Ethan, a student organizer who wished their last name to remain anonymous, said. “Oakland University, to me, is a diverse, it’s a proud, it’s a joyous place, and Riley Gaines has no part in making Oakland University something else.”
