Riley Gaines says blockage of Biden admin's Title IX changes is a 'huge win for humanity'
A U.S. district court in Kentucky on Monday halted the implementation of the Biden administration's new Title IX protections for transgender individuals in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Virginia and West Virginia.
OutKick's "Gaines for Girls" podcast host, and former NCAA swimmer, Riley Gaines said the ruling is a "huge win for humanity."
"This is a huge win for women and girls, but really what this is is a huge win for humanity. It’s a win for objective truth," Gaines said on Fox News Channel's "America Reports" on Tuesday.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Gaines began fighting for fairness in women's sports after transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who Gaines went up against, won a Division I title in 2022.
"I’ve been more hopeful these past few weeks than I have been at any point these last two years that I have so unapologetically and firmly taken this stand. … I feel very hopeful. I think the gender ideology house of cards is crumbling fast."
Gaines, the director of the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute, relived the "traumatizing" experience of not only racing against Thomas, but being naked beside the trans swimmer in the locker room.
"To put it in plain words, it felt like betrayal. It felt like an utter violation, and truly, it was traumatizing," she said. "A 6-foot-4 man fully naked, fully intact, fully exposing himself, simultaneously inches away from where we were fully undressed.
"But it was traumatizing for me to know just how easy it was for those people who created and enforced these policies to totally dismiss our rights to privacy without even a second thought, without even bare minimum forewarning us that we would be sharing this changing space. That’s what the Biden administration, that’s the message he’s sending to young girls like myself."
A federal judge blocked Biden’s Title IX rule in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho last week.
The New Hampshire senate passed a bill last month that would bar transgender athletes in grades 5-12 from competing against the gender they identify as.
The passing of the New Hampshire bill came a couple of weeks after Arkansas governor Sarah Sanders signed an executive order in response to the new Title IX regulations. Sanders said she had been "appalled" by the "attack on common sense."
At least 20 states have approved a version of a blanket ban on transgender athletes playing on K-12 and collegiate sports teams statewide.
Fox News' Ryan Gaydos and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.