Congratulations to the members of the Roanoke College women’s swim team, who hounded an unnamed would-be trans teammate into quitting, and held a press conference on Thursday to dunk on her.
The swimmers, according to a press release from the far-right Conservative Women’s Forum, had been “gaslit into allowing a biological male to join their Division III Women’s Swim Team.”
Except that she didn’t join the team, after a pressure campaign that, according to what was otherwise a favorable piece about her teammates in the New York Post, pushed the trans swimmer to contemplate suicide.
“Our experience was an emotional rollercoaster ride that I don’t want any girl to ever go through with,” one of the team’s co-captains, Kate Pearson, was quoted in the Post article, unironically, considering.
You won’t be surprised to learn that Riley Gaines, whose name you wouldn’t know if she hadn’t raised a bigoted stink about trans swimmer Lia Thomas, was on hand for the Roanoke College press conference spectacle.
“It’s refreshing to see a group of girls willing to say enough is enough when they’re faced with an injustice. When being told to stay quiet and accept discrimination, they’ve said ‘no.’ I’m so proud to link arms with them in the fight to save women’s sports,” Gaines said.
Again, the trans swimmer, who, again, hasn’t been identified, ended up not joining the team, because of a pressure campaign from her would-be teammates that drove her to the point of suicide.
This is not a good look on Roanoke College.