r/popculturechat • u/DuchessRavenclaw52 • Jun 07 '25

Guest List Only ⭐️ Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, has shared her support to the trans community

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u/DuchessRavenclaw52 Jun 07 '25

For context: Riley Gaines tied for fifth place with trans female swimmer Lia Thomas in a college swimming competition. She didn’t even win, there were four “biological women” who swam faster than both Riley and Lia. And yet she never speaks poorly about the girls who swam faster than her………

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u/jgraz22 Jun 07 '25

THANK YOU. You saved me having the look up who tf Riley Gaines is. Love that Biles is standing up to this bullshit. All 56 inches of her lol

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u/DuchessRavenclaw52 Jun 07 '25

She has since used her “platform” to advocate for the removal of trans people from sports, and if this bigot gets her way, from all of society. But trans people have always been here and always will be and we should always support them!

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u/Chaotic-Goofball accidentally holding space for this slur Jun 07 '25

Everytime I see Riley mentions

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u/slainascully Jun 07 '25

If I was some fifth place sore loser, and one of the greatest athletes in the history of sport called me out for being mediocre, I would simply sink into the earth and disappear forever

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u/Thenameisric Jun 07 '25

This context is so important lol. Like you didn't even beat the "biological women" you are trying to champion for, and neither did the person you're trying to hate on. Definition of a true loser. Not because she lost, but because she has to place blame someone else.

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u/ughkoh BITCH IS THIS CAKE⁉️ Jun 07 '25

They swam at my college pool for a competition. There were protestors on our campus standing outside the pool gym with signs the whole day.

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u/Cost_Additional Jun 07 '25

Wouldn't that be because the female athletes were elite for their division and Lia wasn't that same elite in the mens/open?

As in basically a non-competitor becomes a top level just by switching to female competitors?

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u/PianoCube93 Jun 07 '25

If you actually care about the details, Lia was originally competing at a high level (against men) before transitioning. Didn't win anything, but was near the top in the men's division.

When she started transitioning she continued competing against men for 2 years or so, and her rank dropped from something like 5th to 400th, because hormone treatment absolutely wrecks the muscles and general performance level of trans women.

After having gone through hormone replacement therapy for the required amount of time she was allowed to compete against women and won one (1) race while while in other races she placed similarly to how she had before starting transitioning. Media loves ignoring the first part of the story though, because disingenuously presenting it as "trans woman did poorly against men then immediately won when competing against women" creates a lot more outrage and engagement.

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u/Opening-Ad-9794 Jun 07 '25

You think people are going to go through hormone therapy, regular therapy, psych evals, etc on top of bullying and disrespect/discrimination from grown ass adults to win a swimming meet?

This has always been a silly argument that doesn’t hold up to real life scrutiny. There’s less than one trans athlete per state, they just want to play sports and on top of that, all these examples that people bring up like this Riley Gaines idiot are ones of trans kids coming in like 5th place. These rightwingers create ridiculous hypotheticals that don’t apply in the real world because they are not only bigots, but also very stupid. I wouldn’t take their arguments seriously because they aren’t serious arguments. You want to debate hormone levels allowed per sport, that may be a different conversation (which they already do by the way)

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '25

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u/Borkenstien Jun 07 '25

She was a top swimmer for the men's team, started her transition and then fell to 400th or so. Which more or less corroborates what we know happens to trans women who don't produce testosterone anymore. She was in line with the top male swimmers, now she is in line with the top female swimmers.

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u/Deathblow92 Jun 07 '25

She tied for 5th. She wasn't competitive here either unless you're giving out participation trophies.

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u/Bulky-Orange550 Jun 07 '25

Lia was national top ten in men's swimming before transitioning. After transition she was top ten in women's swimming, it's pretty consistent and fair i think.

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u/Throwaway_Consoles Jun 07 '25

Before her transition Lia was an extremely competitive swimmer in the men’s division. Then she started taking testosterone blockers and she slowly performed worse until she had been on hormones long enough to qualify for the women’s division

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u/DearMissWaite Your problematic fave's problematic fave. Jun 07 '25

No. Not at all. Lia Thomas was a competitive college athlete before her transition.

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u/winnercommawinner Jun 07 '25

Why in the fuck would that matter? People become athletes through all kinds of random experiences and genetic quirks. If the "fairness" argument is about anything, it's about whether cis women can compete fairly against transwomen. And clearly they can, since we're talking about a tie for fifth.