It’s been six months since Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the most recent bills targeting transgender Iowans into law, and on Monday the governor showed she intends to keep using her status as a leader figure on the transphobic Republican right to raise money. Reynolds announced Riley Gaines will be her special guest at this year’s Harvest Festival, the governor’s biggest annual political fundraiser.
Gaines, a former member of the women’s swimming team at the University of Kentucky, is most famous for finishing fifth in the NCAA 200-meter women’s freestyle finals in February 2022. That’s because Lia Thomas, a transgender member of the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming team, tied with Gaines for fifth place in that race. Gaines’ complaints about having to compete against Thomas attracted attention in the national media, especially on Fox News. Since then, Gaines has built a career speaking to conservative groups and advocating for laws banning trans athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
“Riley is fighting on the front lines of the most important women’s issue of our time,” Reynolds said in a statement announcing Gaines as her special guest. “She is not afraid to stand up for common sense and declare that biological men do not belong in women’s sports. Inspired by her fight, I am excited to welcome Riley to Iowa.”
A library asked a group repeatedly misgendering trans athletes to leave. At 9am the next day, Riley Gaines shared the librarian’s name and phone number with her 700,000 followers. The library received its 1st bomb threat by 3pm.
New from @MiaGingerich: https://t.co/H4sOqtWlkQ pic.twitter.com/g2RbGpNzqz
— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) August 23, 2023
In March 2022, as Gaines was beginning her career in grievance politics, Reynolds was already signing into law a bill banning trans girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports in Iowa schools, colleges and universities.
That bill was pushed through the Iowa Legislature with just Republican votes, as Republican lawmakers ignored warnings from health and education professionals about the problems it could create, and despite the fact that there had never been a single complaint filed in the state of Iowa about trans athletes.
Reynolds and Republican lawmakers followed up that 2022 ban with new laws this year that ban any trans person from using a school bathroom or locker room that corresponds to their identity, prohibit gender-affirming medical care for trans Iowans under the age of 18 — which went into full effect on Monday — stop teachers and other school officials from using a student’s preferred name or pronouns without first receiving written from a patent or legal guardian, and prohibit teachers through grade 6 from acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ people. Also, the governor’s new voucher-style program created this year allows public school funds to be used by private schools that discriminate against LGBTQ students and students with LGBTQ family members.
As was the case with the school sports ban, there was no history in Iowa of problems with any of the subjects the new laws addressed.
According to a news release from the Reynolds campaign, Gaines responded to the governor’s invitation by praising Reynolds as “a leading voice in pushing back against the radical Left’s gender ideology.”
Reynolds’ annual Harvest Festival fundraiser is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 14, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.
This story originally appeared in LV Daily, Little Village’s Monday-Friday email newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered for free to your inbox.
