Riley Gaines responded to Lia Thomas’s lawsuit: “I felt uncomfortable sharing the women’s restroom with ‘him’. He even refused a prostate exam. I was worried, what if he felt ‘anxiety’ like Pedro Pascal?”
In the swirling controversy over transgender athletes in women’s sports, former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines has fired back at Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer whose 2022 NCAA victories ignited a firestorm.
Gaines, now a prominent activist and plaintiff in a high-stakes lawsuit against the NCAA, didn’t hold back in her latest salvo, highlighting personal discomforts and drawing a pointed comparison to actor Pedro Pascal’s public admissions of anxiety. The exchange underscores the deepening divide in debates about fairness, privacy, and inclusion in female-only spaces.
Gaines’ remarks come amid ongoing legal battles that have reshaped college athletics. Thomas, who transitioned from male to female and became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title in the women’s 500-yard freestyle, has faced bans from elite competitions like the Olympics after losing a challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
World Aquatics, the sport’s governing body, updated policies to restrict transgender women who transitioned after puberty from women’s events, citing retained biological advantages.
Gaines, who tied with Thomas for fifth in the 200-yard freestyle at those championships but was handed a sixth-place trophy onstage, has long voiced outrage over the incident. She claims it symbolized broader inequities, including forced shared locker rooms where female athletes felt violated by Thomas’ male genitalia.
The “prostate exam” reference in Gaines’ response appears to mock Thomas’ biological reality as a transgender woman—someone assigned male at birth who retains male anatomy unless surgically altered.
Gaines has previously alleged that Thomas refused certain medical checks, amplifying her narrative of discomfort in intimate settings like restrooms and locker rooms. Teammates, she says, were even directed to counseling if uneasy about “male genitalia” in women’s spaces, a claim that fueled her activism. This isn’t just rhetoric; it’s personal.
Gaines testified before Congress about feeling “traumatized” and “emotionally blackmailed” into silence, turning her post-college life into a crusade via speeches, books, and her Outkick podcast.
The Pedro Pascal jab adds a layer of cultural critique. The “Last of Us” star recently opened up about severe anxiety, including discomfort in high-pressure situations that left him “paralyzed.” Gaines seems to sarcastically question why Thomas’ potential “anxiety”—perhaps over privacy invasions or medical scrutiny—shouldn’t prompt accommodations, while women’s unease is dismissed.
It’s a sharp pivot, implying hypocrisy in how sensitivities are handled. Pascal, a vocal LGBTQ+ ally, has defended trans rights and clashed with critics like J.K. Rowling, making the comparison a dig at progressive icons who champion inclusion but, in Gaines’ view, overlook biological women’s boundaries.
Thomas’ lawsuit against the NCAA, filed alongside advocates for trans rights, argues that policies barring her from women’s events violate inclusion standards.
But Gaines and co-plaintiffs in their own class-action suit—backed by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports—counter that such rules breach Title IX, denying biological females fair competition and safe spaces.
Recent developments bolster their case: The University of Pennsylvania, Thomas’ alma mater, settled a federal Title IX probe by erasing her records, banning trans women from women’s teams, and apologizing to affected athletes to secure funding. Gaines hailed it as a win, urging the NCAA to follow suit and amend Thomas’ titles.
Critics accuse Gaines of exaggeration; early accounts suggested Thomas behaved respectfully in locker rooms, and some label her activism politically motivated.
Yet her influence grows—over 1.6 million X followers, rallies, and ties to conservative causes like Turning Point USA. Supporters see her as a defender of Title IX’s promise, protecting girls from “glorified male violence,” as she put it in Olympic boxing critiques.
This feud isn’t abstract—it’s about real stakes. Female athletes report injuries from trans competitors in volleyball and track, echoing Gaines’ poolside grievances.
As lawsuits drag on, with no NCAA settlement in sight, the rhetoric escalates. Thomas, now in law school, fades from the spotlight, but Gaines presses forward, warning of eroded privacy and fairness.
Whether her barbs sway courts or culture remains unclear, but they’ve undeniably amplified the clash, forcing a reckoning on what “women’s sports” truly means in 2025.
