Media Outlets Blame Riley Gaines, OutKick For Fake LGBT Bomb Threat At California Library

PinkNews is an online newspaper in the United Kingdom. It markets to the LGBTQIA+ community. On Friday, the outlet blamed OutKick podcast host Riley Gaines for a bomb threat in California.

"Riley Gaines anti-trans harassment on social media linked to bomb threat on California library," reads the headline.

The outlet refers to an incident on August 21 when a Sacramento librarian, Mary L. Stephens, reported receiving "an anonymous bomb threat in a phone call that included anti-LGBTQ+ speech."

Incident Began When Librarian Accused Speaker Of Misgendering

The threat came a day after the Yolo County chapter of Moms for Liberty hosted a meeting in the library where speaker Sophia Lorey, a former college soccer player at Vanguard University, shared her experience as a female athlete.

“Current 10-year-old girls cannot live out the same dream as long as men are allowed to compete in women's sports. So now no matter how hard girls work ..." Lorey said before an interruption.

The librarian, Stephens, shouted at Lorey from the back of the room, accusing her of misgendering trans athletes. Stephens warned doing so violates a California law that recognizes transgender women as women.

In response, Lorey referred to athletes as “biological girls” and “biological men," to which the librarian again rose in dismay. This time, Stephens demanded Lorey exit the room.

Lorey posted the incident on X with a video. Riley Gaines responded to the clip by encouraging users to call the library in opposition to its treatment of Lorey.

Here's what Gaines posted:

At this point, you might wonder how Gaines was linked to the bomb threat. Or, more importantly, who linked her to the threat, as stated in the PinkNews headline?

Media Outlets Blame Riley Gaines, OutKick For Bomb Threats

The answer is Media Matters For America (MMFA).

PinkNews cited an MMFA article from Wednesday with the title "Bomb threat and hate speech against library follow targeted harassment from Riley Gaines and other right-wing media figures."

Media Matters is a nonprofit organization backed by George Soros and his ilk. No honest person, on the left or right, takes MMFA seriously.

The organization mischaracterizes the words of alternative media sources -- Fox News, The Daily Wire, The Blaze, OutKick, and The Babylon Bee -- in an effort to browbeat sponsors into ceasing association with the targeted media brand.

This week, without any proof, MMFA attributed the bomb threat to Gaines and OutKick. The article states:

 Fox News posted an article headlined “Riley Gaines slams men trying to 'silence' ex-college athlete at California library event” less than two hours after Gaines posted her initial tweet on the matter. OutKick, Timcast, and the Washington Examiner — outlets with long histories of anti-LGBTQ animus — all published articles before the bomb threat was reported. Gaines was cited in all three.

What examples of "OutKick's long history of anti-LGBTQ animus" did the article provide? It didn't provide any.

In fact, it only links to an article from OutKick by writer Mark Harris. In the article, Harris recaps, step-by-step, the incident involving Sophia Lorey. Harris, who is not "anti" anything, covered the story like a news journalist.

PinkNews and Media Matters say Gaines and OutKick are responsible for the threat. Yet neither explains how.

Gaines was a female swimmer for The University of Kentucky. She swam against Lia Thomas, a biological male. Gaines saw firsthand the consequences of allowing men to compete against women -- in competition and the locker room:

"We were not forewarned beforehand that we would be sharing a locker room with Lia. We did not give our consent, they did not ask for our consent, but in that locker room we turned around, and there’s a 6’4" biological man dropping his pants and watching us undress, and we were exposed to male genitalia," Gaines said.

Americans Largely Believe What Riley Gaines Believes

Riley Gaines believes transgender athletes should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender. So does 69 percent of Americans, according to a Gallup poll last month.

That does not make Gaines anti-LGBTQ. It makes her like most Americans. The difference is she says so publicly.

But it most certainly does not make her responsible for a bomb threat in California, as per PinkNews.

And blaming someone for a bomb threat, without proof and a clear intention to harm their brand, is, by definition, libelous.

Particularly when an outlet does not give the subject a chance to respond.

Gaines commented to the PinkNews article on Friday:

"Doubling down on a sinking ship by posting this libelous garbage again. You mention at the bottom of your article you contacted me for comment (which is a lie) so here's your comment to take back to the publisher: 'Get your lawyers ready.'"

Gaines adds to OutKick:

"I'm definitely exploring options for legal action to be taken against PinkNews. They have resorted to defamation and lying which has in turn caused an infiltration of personal threats to my safety. News outlets continue to lie and need to be held accountable. They are the only ones inciting violence with their libelous headlines used to spike engagement."