Women’s sports advocate and former All-American swimmer Riley Gaines is calling out WNBA champion Brittney Griner over recent remarks equating protecting female athletes from competing with and sharing locker space with men to being ‘criminal’ and unfair.
Griner appeared last week to during a press conference for the Phoenix Mercury ahead of their 2023 season, where during the conference a reporter asked whether she would take a public stance on the topic of transgender athletes, which had become a major issue during the time in which Griner was being held in a Russian penal camp most of 2022 for bringing illegal substances into the country.
Known for being a supporter of the LGBTQ+ movement, Griner unsurprisingly sided with the progressive notion that men can compete with and share changing room space with female athletes and vice versa. She said it was essentially “a crime” to “separate someone for any reason,” ignoring the many safety issues that this brings.
“That ranks high on the list of things I’ll be fighting for and speaking up against,” Griner responded. “Everyone deserves the right to play. Everyone deserves the right to come here, sit in these seats and feel safe — and not feel like there’s the threat, or they can’t be who they are, or like it’s just all eyes on them.”
“I think it’s a crime, honestly, to separate someone for any reason,” she continued. “So, I definitely will be speaking up against that legislation and those laws that are trying to be passed, for sure.”
RELATED: Brittney Griner Says It Is A “Crime” To Prevent Men From Competing Against Female Athletes
Over the weekend, Gaines took to Twitter to respond to Griner’s statement, saying that to take this stance was to demean the integrity of women’s sports and the safety of female athletes.
“Which NBA team would have Brittney Griner since apparently the overwhelming, obvious differences between men and women should be overlooked?” Gaines tweeted. “Heartbreaking to see authentically successful women take this demeaning stance. And if we’re going to talk about crimes, Brittney…”
Which NBA team would have @brittneygriner since apparently the overwhelming, obvious differences between men and women should simply be overlooked? Heartbreaking to see athletically successful women take this demeaning stance.
And if we're going to talk about crimes, Brittney… https://t.co/cZpWYQShRI
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) April 30, 2023
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