Riley Gaines To Democrat Rep. Summer Lee: 'If I'm Transphobic, You're A Misogynist'

On Tuesday, members of the United States Congress convened for a Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Hearing. OutKick's Riley Gaines testified on behalf of female athletes. Republican Rep. Lisa McClain led the proceedings while "Squad" member Democrat Rep. Summer Lee served as the ranking member on the opposing side, advocating for biological men to play women's sports.

The hearing began with a strong opening statement from Rep. McClain, who made her position very clear.

"Quite simply, men do not belong in women's sports," she stated. "That this needs to be said out loud is really kind of a sad reflection of where the other side is on this issue. There should be no debate about this."

Shifting to the opposing side, Rep. Summer Lee had her five minutes to address the committee following McClain. Lee starts by attacking anyone on the opposing side, saying she's disgusted that she has to listen to "transphobic bigotry."

Not satisfied by pre-labeling everyone else's position once, she ends her time by saying that those who oppose her -- like Riley Gaines -- are going to spew "hateful misinformation." Again, she formed this opinion before any of the witnesses had a chance to speak.

Following Lee's statement, the committee recognized Riley Gaines. She started by telling her story about being forced to compete against -- and change in the same locker room -- as biological male Will (Lia) Thomas.

Gaines also talked about how the majority of Americans feel about this issue. She said that "common-sense Americans" agree whole-heartedly with her message. She knows better than anyone because she travels the country and talks to people affected by this issue.

Riley Gaines, American competitive swimmer, speaks before Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis at the Greenville Convention Center. (Photo credit: McKenzie Lange/USA Today Network)

After she finished making her case, Gaines punctuated her opening statement with a profound response to the negative comments made by Rep. Lee.

"If I'm transphobic, then you're a misogynist," Gaines declared.

Lee demanded that the committee withdraw Gaines' comments. She claimed, essentially, that Gaines personally attacked her. The irony is that Lee openly name-called and criticized Gaines before she could even speak. No one demanded her speech be excluded.

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NOTE: Lee's claim that Gaines' is "engaging in personalities" is a fancy way of saying she breached etiquette. Apparently, calling Lee a misogynist for her anti-woman position is worse than calling Gaines transphobic for her pro-woman position.

The way the hearing was set up, Rep. Lee had a chance to respond to Gaines. In typical fashion, she doesn't have the facts to support her argument that biological men competing in women's sports is perfectly fine. Not only fine, but encouraged.

Instead, she turned the hearing -- which was strictly about protecting fairness in women's sports -- into a discussion about abortion. And, what would a Democrat politician really be unless he or she also brought race into the discussion. Which Lee did because ... well, because of course.

The hearing lasted nearly three hours. It's not worth breaking down the entire inquiry, but there were some themes throughout that are important to note.

Almost every Democrat Representative that spoke used his or her time to deflect from the issue at hand. Like Lee, many of them pointed to abortion and race. Some even delved into the war in the Middle East.

Their goal was to paint the dissenting Republicans as woman-haters while simultaneously arguing against fairness in women's sports. This strategy seemed to be the one of choice because the facts and science are not on their side.

The second very noticeable strategy was to completely paint Gaines and her cohorts as "excluding" trans people from sports. That's simply false.

Dem. Rep. Summer Lee described Riley Gaines as "transphobic" and Gaines responded by calling Lee a "misogynist" during Congressional hearing. (Photo credit: Nate Smallwood/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Frequently, Democrat Representatives labeled pro-woman bills as "anti-trans" and as an attempt to "exclude" trans athletes from sports. Then, they explained how important sports are to the mental health of young people.

I'd like them all to remember that when they're arguing that football isn't safe enough, but I digress.

The goal here is to exclude biological men from competing in women's sports. Those biological men are still free to compete in sports with other biological men.

If they don't want to compete in men's sports, that's their choice.

But they shouldn't get the choice to invade women's sports in the name of inclusivity.