Conservative women are pushing back against a cultural shift that puts biological women at a disadvantage, especially in sports and privacy. This piece uses the Riley Gaines case to show how some on the Left prioritize transgender activism over women’s hard-won opportunities. It argues that mainstream Democrats, including prominent politicians, often dismiss or attack women who speak up.
I remember when feminists warned us about the “patriarchy” as the enemy that kept women down, a catchall for anything that didn’t openly, actively hate men. Back then the threat was painted as broad and inevitable, but now the language has warped and the targets have changed. Conservative women who love the men in their lives still face accusations for holding different views.
More recently, many activists have shifted to insisting the best option for women is to accept biological men as “trans women,” even when that decision overwrites women’s safety and fairness. That shift has led to open hostility toward any woman who points out physical differences and the consequences that follow. Speaking up has become risky in a culture that rewards silence or compliance.
Riley Gaines was a college swimmer who worked her whole life to compete, until William (“Lia”) Thomas, who was ranked 462nd among his fellow men, declared himself a woman and joined the women’s roster. Thomas then set records and routinely beat female competitors, exploiting male physiological advantages. This isn’t theoretical; it’s documented competition where training and biology both mattered.
For daring to object, Gaines endured years of harassment, violent threats, and organized abuse from Leftists and Democrats who like to style themselves as the “party of women.” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) publicly mocked Gaines twice, first snarking, “Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth” and later telling her to “get a real job.” Those exact lines landed while real threats circulated online.
That kind of insult is rich coming from someone who at one point mixed cocktails for a living before entering public service. Democrats love to point out that Gaines “came in fifth” as if that settles the debate about fairness and safety. What many conservatives want instead is a simple demand: tell biological men competing in women’s events to train more or compete with men, not to erase women’s spaces.
But that clear solution doesn’t happen because political incentives run the other way; some factions feel they must elevate the trans narrative at women’s expense. Silencing or sidelining women becomes part of a broader effort to validate a preferred identity politics. The result is the deliberate weakening of protections designed for biological women.
Case in point:
The audacity of some responses is staggering. Gaines never asked to be put in a position where her accomplishments would be dismissed or taken by a male competitor, and she certainly did not invite the threats that followed. What woman in her right mind would willingly sign up for years of targeted abuse simply for pointing out an unfair matchup?
None of us would choose that, and many don’t have the luxury of walking away. Gaines recently gave birth to a daughter, so her stakes are personal and practical; she wants the next generation to have intact opportunities. That maternal perspective drives a lot of the current pushback from conservative women who see a systemic reshaping of sports and privacy.
It is fundamentally unfair and sexist to insist women cede athletic opportunities, modesty, privacy, and safety so that men who present as girls can feel “affirmed” in their “gender identity.” At the same time there is a campaign to erase the word women from public language and reduce our humanity to parts and functions. Given that erosion of rights and recognition, it’s no surprise women are mobilizing beyond polite petitions.
So instead of shrinking, many women have turned to social media, started nonprofit groups, and brought cases to court to defend basic protections against radical activists and their leftist allies. We will not be silenced, and we will not be cowed. That resolve is becoming organized and public in ways that make politicians take notice.
Far too many people, Cole included, traffic in the impulse to put women back in their place for the sake of validating unstable ideologies and rewarding dishonest competition. They strip achievements, minimize real harm, and try to shame anyone who speaks plainly about sex-based fairness. They must, instead, be put in theirs.
