Riley Gaines urges Amfest crowd to 'speak the truth' in the face of objective reality being denied

12-time All-American swimmer Riley Gaines addressed the crowd at Turning Point USA’s Americafest on Sunday, urging the crowd to speak the truth in a time when many in the country are "denying objective truth."

Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who tied against former UPenn swimmer and biological male Lia Thomas and was denied being able to hold the trophy at the NCAA finals because "it’s crucial that Lia is holding the trophy," told the crowd that during that 2022 championship meet, "I naively thought someone else would stand up for us."

"What wishful thinking that was. If we wait for the people to do the right thing we'll be waiting for forever," Gaines said, later adding that "I realized how in the world could we expect someone else to save us if we weren't even willing to save ourselves? This has to come from us as women as female athletes."

Gaines said that this was happening because "it’s entirely spiritual warfare," noting that "Paul warns us several times throughout various chapters of the Bible, Acts and Romans, he tells us we will reach a point where bitter is seen as sweet and dark is seen as light and evil is seen as moral."

"And it's undeniable, that that's not what we're seeing now. And that's not me saying that people who are struggling with gender dysphoria are evil. No, of course not. But deceit is evil and manipulation is evil and affirming lies and delusions that's evil."

Gaines said that "our First Amendment rights are being infringed upon," and "our freedom of speech is being compromised."

"The language that we're using is changing and shifting entirely. This idea of 'biological woman' makes me want to throw up. So if I can be of any encouragement to you, stop adding that prerequisite. Because when you do that, even if it's subconscious, even if you subconsciously add that word 'biological,' you're admitting that there's an unbiological alternative to being a woman or a man or a male or a female or boy or girl and there's not."

"It's now cervix haver or uterus owner or menstruator or bleeder, or birthing person or chest feeder. Mr. Rachel Levine, most recently has now been referring to women as egg producers and in peer-reviewed medical published journals, what they're referring to female anatomy as is a bonus hole."

"So be mindful of the language that you use. Because it's powerful. When you control language. You control everything, and that's very evident through our media and our government and different things."

Gaines said the premise of a lot of cultural issues being faced today "is that we’re denying objective truth, the most basic truth at that."

"When we deny man and woman again, the essence of humanity, we're essentially denying that the sky is blue. We're being asked to say two plus two is five, and we're adhering."

Gaines said that all this "points directly in the direction of Cultural Marxism."

"I encourage you to talk to someone who has fled these countries like North Korea, or China, or Cuba, or Argentina, or Venezuela, or Germany, or Russia, talk to someone from these countries and they will tell you that what we're seeing here in the US is exactly what they saw at one point in their country or what they may continue to see happening in those countries."

The former college swimmer urged the crowd to "work as hard as you have ever worked" in the next 11 months leading up to the election, but added that "change does not start in the White House."

It starts in your house. And so parents, set a good example. Show your children love, whether that be through your personal relationships, whether that be through your marriage. Teach them the goodness of God. Teach your daughters or your sons teach them how to be strong masculine men and be willing to defend your daughters because they're in desperate need of that."

"For evil to triumph, it only takes good men and good women to do nothing. A lie will never become the truth, evil will never become moral, bad will never become good, just because it's accepted and embraced by a small portion of society."

Gaines encouraged the crowd to "be bold, be courageous, be willing to say the truth."