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Speaker 1: I've also got this opinion piece in the New York Times.

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Speaker 1: The problem with saying sex assigned at birth, that is,

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Speaker 1: I think unintentionally hilarious. A lot of this stuff is

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Speaker 1: hilarious until you consider how far it's gone to wit.

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Speaker 1: What a pleasure this is to talk to Riley Gaines in.

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Speaker 1: Unless you were a college swimmer, you probably didn't know

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Speaker 1: her name or a fan of college swimming until fairly recently.

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Speaker 1: But Riley has been crusading bravely, and I won't put

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Speaker 1: words in her mouth but for the simple proposition that

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Speaker 1: women's sports are for women and women's private spaces are

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Speaker 1: for women period. Riley is the director of the Riley

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Speaker 1: gains Center at the Leadership Institute and joins us.

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Speaker 2: Now, Riley, how are you.

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Speaker 3: I am doing great, and let me tell you you

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Speaker 3: are always allowed to put those words in my mouth,

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Speaker 3: because that is exactly what I'm doing.

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Speaker 2: Well, excellent. We are big fans of yours and admire

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Speaker 2: your courage very much. For folks not familiar with this,

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Speaker 2: before we get to the basics of what you're espousing,

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Speaker 2: how tough has it been for you personally to stand

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Speaker 2: up and say women's sports are for women?

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Speaker 3: You know what, when I first took that initial public

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Speaker 3: fand after of course competing at the national Championships against

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Speaker 3: Leah Thomas, who's formerly Will Thomas, who swam three years

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Speaker 3: on the men's team at you Penn before deciding to

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Speaker 3: switch to the women's team. After seeing all of that firsthand,

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Speaker 3: after going through sensitivity training and social justice circles and

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Speaker 3: all the different things, I was terrified. But I could

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Speaker 3: not have been more naive to how easy it really

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Speaker 3: is to say something so simple. Again, all I'm saying

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Speaker 3: is that there are two sexes. You can't change your sex,

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Speaker 3: and each sex is deserving an equal opportunity, privacy and safety.

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Speaker 3: It's wild that that we live in a time where

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Speaker 3: that now requires bravery to say that, But it's easy

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Speaker 3: saying it for me.

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Speaker 4: Now it's a hill. I'm willing time.

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Speaker 1: So when you how many times did you swim against

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Speaker 1: Leah Thomas, the most famous trends athlete too, that once.

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Speaker 4: Against him at that one national championships. Okay, as I

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Speaker 4: mentioned competed.

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Speaker 1: What was what was it like in the pool of

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Speaker 1: the crowd that day? I mean, were was everybody just

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Speaker 1: like ignoring the elephant in the room or were people

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Speaker 1: talking about it.

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Speaker 3: It was weird going into the meet, almost ashamedly, I

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Speaker 3: felt intrigued. I had a lot of questions myself and

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Speaker 3: my teammates that that we wanted answered, right, like what

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Speaker 3: is the locker room going to look like?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Is he as tall as he seems on Instagram compared

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Speaker 3: to his teammates. But upon arriving to that meet and

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Speaker 3: of course having these questions answered, like I said, I

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Speaker 3: felt ashamed for feeling intrigued, and those feelings of intriguement

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Speaker 3: and almost like this, this big circus were we were

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Speaker 3: a part of those feelings shifted the heartbreak. I mean,

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Speaker 3: I felt like competing against them. I was going into

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Speaker 3: the race with my hands tied behind my back.

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Speaker 2: Well, you don't have anything to apologize for, I mean,

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Speaker 2: for gonna sake. You were a young college woman, and

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Speaker 2: I don't blame you for thinking, Wow, what the hell

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Speaker 2: is going to happen? But you were forced to share

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Speaker 2: the locker room, or at least Leah Thomas's teammates were

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Speaker 2: for a very long time with a six foot four

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Speaker 2: inch man, fully intact genitals on display, and you were

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Speaker 2: being required to look at that human and say, that's

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Speaker 2: a woman.

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Speaker 3: Not only that, but when we objected to this, we

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Speaker 3: were told we were the problem.

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Speaker 4: Right. We were told that we were.

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Speaker 3: The ones who should oologize and if we didn't see

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Speaker 3: this as a woman, then ultimately it was us who

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Speaker 3: are who are the biggest, and we should face the repercussions.

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Speaker 3: Thomas's teammates who objected to this, Granted they keep in mind,

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Speaker 3: yes I a dressed with him and that at that

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Speaker 3: national championship, but his teammates did eighteen times every single week.

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Speaker 3: And when they objected to this and sit an email

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Speaker 3: to their administration, you pan, I swear to you I

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Speaker 3: have a screenshot of the response.

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Speaker 4: You' penn responded back with if you.

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Speaker 3: Feel uncomfortable seeing managing to tell you, here are some

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Speaker 3: counseling resources that you speak in an attempt to re

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Speaker 3: educate yourselves.

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Speaker 1: Wow, how did that happen a couple of years after

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Speaker 1: Me Too? Where if a guy asked a girl out

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Speaker 1: on a date at work, you were Harvey Weinstein.

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Speaker 3: That's so crazy, I know it.

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Speaker 4: And now these same people who advocated for the.

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Speaker 3: Me Too movement, who claimed to champion and pride themselves

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Speaker 3: on championing women's rights it's those same people who are

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Speaker 3: spearheading this movement to really dismantle our rights as.

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Speaker 2: Women, well as the father of a couple of daughters

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Speaker 2: and a youth sports coach who coached girls. I remember

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Speaker 2: in boys. I remember remarking on the show years and

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Speaker 2: years ago, as I was head coach for a boys

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Speaker 2: soccer team and assisting with my daughter's soccer team, the

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Speaker 2: speed and violence of the boys at the same age

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Speaker 2: was shocking compared to the girls. If the girls exit

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Speaker 2: deadly knocked each other down, they would say, oh my god,

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Speaker 2: I'm sorry and pick up their opponent off the turf. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 2: the guys are bleeding from the head and covered with

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Speaker 2: mud and loving it. The idea that oh, no, no,

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Speaker 2: now that male says she's a female is the sort

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Speaker 2: of absurdity Voltaire talked about when he said, those who

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Speaker 2: can make us believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

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Speaker 2: But anyway, so Riley Gaines, you've got your Riley gain

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Speaker 2: Center at the Leadership Institute. What are the main things

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Speaker 2: you're trying to accomplish? What are the basic principles?

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Speaker 3: The main thing we're trying to accomplish through the center

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Speaker 3: is it's a training program to help train and develop

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Speaker 3: and equip and empower leaders, whether that's leaders at the

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Speaker 3: national level, the community level of course, within school boards,

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Speaker 3: college teams, college athletes, whatever it might be. We need

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Speaker 3: more leaders. I believe that's why our suffering. I have

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Speaker 3: also been and speaking on several different college campuses through

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Speaker 3: the Center.

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Speaker 4: Which has been a big push of mine.

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Speaker 3: To really help engage the youth people who are my age,

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Speaker 3: you know, being a recent college graduate myself, I understand.

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Speaker 4: I understand how how hard it is.

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Speaker 3: You're essentially equated to a criminal if you say you're

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Speaker 3: a conservative on college cases.

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Speaker 4: Not that this issue.

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Speaker 3: Should be part of it or should fall along party

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Speaker 3: lines in the way that ultimately it has, at least

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Speaker 3: in terms of how our elected officials are responding and

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Speaker 3: how the media portrays this issue.

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Speaker 4: But we need more truth speakers, truth.

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Speaker 3: Speakers, So that's what speaking on these college campuses, that's

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Speaker 3: the goal there.

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Speaker 2: Riley Gaines is going to be speaking at You See

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Speaker 2: Berkeley not far from the Radio Ranch tomorrow, that's April

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Speaker 2: the fourth, at six point thirty, as part of her

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Speaker 2: Reclaim Feminism campus tour. Was it you See Berkeley that

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Speaker 2: you ran into like violent opposition or like last year

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Speaker 2: was it?

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Speaker 3: Yes, you're exactly right, almost exactly a year ago. It

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Speaker 3: was at San Francisco State University. I was met with vitriol,

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Speaker 3: I was met with violence, I was met with, of course, hatefulness.

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Speaker 3: And it's so comical, like you, like you mentioned in

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Speaker 3: the intro here, it would be comical. This is the

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Speaker 3: same crowd who claims to be tall and who claims

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Speaker 3: to be inclusive and welcoming and accepting. But that is

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Speaker 3: not what I faced at San Francisco, and oftentimes not

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Speaker 3: what I faced around the country. This is the least

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Speaker 3: tolerant group you could possibly imagine. But nonetheless, this is

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Speaker 3: who needs to hear the message. It's no good preaching

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Speaker 3: to the choir all the time. So I'm excited to

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Speaker 3: be in the Bay Area. I'm excited to be at

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Speaker 3: u C. Berkeley, and I'm I'm now, given my experience

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Speaker 3: last year in San Francisco, I am more than prepared

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Speaker 3: for what could possibly and most certainly probably will you.

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Speaker 1: Got the yeah, probably, will you got the proper security?

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Speaker 1: I mean, so you're you're prepared for it to be ugly?

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Speaker 3: Possibly, Yes, sir, Unfortunately that's the way it has to go.

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Speaker 1: Well, probably actual guys, like big guys with penises that

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Speaker 1: are going to protect you. Oh that kind of guy,

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Speaker 1: that kind of guy. That's the kind of guy I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about you.

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Speaker 4: Wow.

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Speaker 2: And if anybody who's working your favorite one guy now

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Speaker 2: Riley is a good and decent and reasonable person. I

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Speaker 2: Joe Getty, on the other hand, have fully empowered anybody

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Speaker 2: working security for Riley's event to whoop as much ass

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Speaker 2: as you need to to keep her one hundred percent safety.

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Speaker 2: These people are lunatics. Riley. The point you made about,

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Speaker 2: you know, welcomeness and inclusion, that is such a lie.

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Speaker 2: It's like the whole diversity thing that doesn't mean diversity,

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Speaker 2: that means the people I want. The minute it's the

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Speaker 2: people I don't want. Suddenly diversity isn't important at all,

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Speaker 2: or welcomness or inclusion or whatever the hell else. So

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Speaker 2: we are going to have a link at Armstrong in

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Speaker 2: getty dot com so folks can access the Riley Gains Center,

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Speaker 2: particularly parents of young women, and not just athletes either.

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Speaker 2: I mean, because y'all are talking about not only sports

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Speaker 2: and locker rooms, but women's faces, women's prisons, and bathrooms

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Speaker 2: and that sort of thing as well.

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Speaker 4: Right, of course, of course we are.

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Speaker 3: You're exactly right in saying an extends far beyond just

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Speaker 3: women's sports.

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Speaker 2: Riley Gaines, you're a hero of ours. We appreciate your

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Speaker 2: time and your efforts very much. Keep up the good

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Speaker 2: fight and let us know how we can help. We

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Speaker 2: mean that seriously, of course.

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Speaker 3: Well, I thank you guys so much and appreciate you

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Speaker 3: for what you do.

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Speaker 4: So thank you Armstrong.

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Speaker 1: Andy