Anti-trans pundit Riley Gaines describes naked body of trans swimmer Lia Thomas at Trump rally

Anti-trans pundit Riley Gaines has spoken at a rally for Donald Trump, once again bringing up transgender swimmer Lia Thomas – this time describing her naked body.

Gaines swam for the University of Kentucky team, racing against University of Pennsylvania’s Lia Thomas in 2022.

Thomas finished first in the women’s 500-yard freestyle, making her the first trans champion in National Collegiate Athletic Association history.

Speaking to thousands of people at a Turning Point Action rally in Duluth, Georgia, on Wednesday (23 October), ahead of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Gaines zeroed in on sharing a locker room with Thomas, going into extensive detail about her opponent’s naked body.

Gaines went on to say she felt “violation… betrayal [and] humiliation” and claimed that she and other swimmers had not given their consent to share the changing room, describing doing so as “sexual harassment”.

Trump has vowed to ban all trans inclusion in women’s sports if he wins back the White House in 12 days’ time.

“We’re not going to let it happen,” the former president has said. “We stop it, we absolutely stop it. We can’t have it. You just ban it. The president bans it. You don’t let it happen, it’s not a big deal.”

He has also made a range of claims about trans people, including that teachers are performing gender-affirming surgery on children during the school day and that his Democrat rival for the presidency, Kamala Harris, wants to carry out “transgender operations” on what Republicans call illegal aliens.

In September, the Trump campaign released an ad attacking the vice-president’s pro-trans views and repeated claims that Harris supports taxpayer-funded gender-affirming care for prison inmates and undocumented immigrants.

The ad, which featured pictures and video clips of LGBTQ+ White House staff, and drag queens, ended with the tagline: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

However, Harris has pointed out that when Trump was president, his administration backed gender-affirming care for trans prisoners.

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