Riley Gaines is the transgender cult’s worst nightmare.

Young, beautiful, athletic, and impassioned, she’s become the face of a growing movement to claw back what has always rightfully belonged to women: the right to freely and privately associate with other women. And she’s putting up a hell of a fight.

They’re huddled right now, the cultists on the Left. They’re trying to figure out a way to smear her, discredit her, take her down a peg or two. They’re failing badly, though. And that’s good news for decent people everywhere; good news for those of us who accept the biological reality that men and women are inherently different.

Gaines was on Capitol Hill yesterday as a witness for Senate hearings titled “Protecting Pride: Defending the Civil Rights of LGBTQ+ Americans.” The Democrats, who control the Senate, called the hearings and presided over them. And while they’d never admit it, we suspect they now regret having done so.

A former swimmer at the University of Kentucky, Gaines is a 12-time All-American, a five-time SEC champion, and an SEC record-holder in the 200-meter butterfly. She’s also tough as nails. Anyone who knows anything about the grueling nature of NCAA swimming knows this to be true — as does anyone who saw how Gaines refused to back down after being set upon by The Mob at San Francisco State University back in April. A lesser champion would’ve packed it in and headed off to dental school. But that’s not Gaines.

In her opening remarks, and with her voice understandably cracking, she described what it was like not only to compete against William Lia Thomas, a biological male from the University of Pennsylvania who has dominated the women’s sport since declaring that he identifies as a female, but also to share a locker room with Thomas:

In addition to being forced to give up our awards and our titles and our opportunities, the NCAA forced me and my female swimmers to swim, to share a locker room with Thomas, a six-foot, two-inch, 22-year-old male, equipped with and exposing male genitalia.

Let me be clear about this: We were not forewarned we would be sharing a locker room. No one asked for our consent, and we did not give our consent. And I’ll set the scene: A swimming locker room is not a place of modesty. You’re undressing, you’re fully exposed, and we were forced to take off our swimsuit in front of a man, who was doing the exact same thing. If nothing else, I truly hope you all can see this is a violation of our right to privacy and how some of us have felt uncomfortable, embarrassed, and even traumatized by this experience.

Missouri Republican Josh Hawley used his time to question Gaines about the viciousness she’s encountered from the cultists, including the attempts by the Left to shame her into silence on the pretext that speaking out endangers the lives of transgender males.

“You’re told as a woman to shut up, don’t say anything,” Hawley said. “What’s that like?”

“They will call you everything under the sun,” she replied, “whether it’s transphobic, homophobic, racist, white supremacist, domestic terrorist. They will throw them all at you in hopes to deter you, in hopes to silence you.”

WATCH: Senator @HawleyMO questions Female Sports Activist @RileyGaines about the abuse, harassment, and threats she’s received at the hands of radical, progressive gender activists.

HAWLEY: “You’re told as a woman to shut up. Don’t say anything. What’s that like?”

GAINES:… pic.twitter.com/buKAEayU7A

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 21, 2023

Gaines also talked about the disgraceful failure of the NCAA, which has tried to “normalize” the situation and has likewise tried to shame these young female athletes for deigning to object. And she addressed one of the Left’s other lines of defense: that the issue of biological males competing against biological females is a rarity, and thus a non-issue.

“To believe it’s a non-issue, or to believe it’s only happening in a certain area could not be further from the truth,” said Gaines on Fox News this morning. “And I know this because I get the messages, I get the DMs from parents who are in tears because they’re watching their daughters get sidelined or injured in their sport. I get the messages from female athletes across the country, all sports, all divisions, all levels, every single state, letting me know that my story is not unique. … I’m the megaphone for so many who feel terrified.”

Gaines finished her opening statement by addressing the attacks that she and her fellow female athletes have had leveled against them: “Defending women’s rights is not ‘anti’ anyone. Believing in biology is not bigoted. And following the science that there are only two sexes and that there are very real and important differences between the two sexes is not hateful. It’s fact.”

She then quoted tennis legend Martina Navratilova, a lesbian who herself has come out strongly against the invasion and degradation of women’s sports by biological men: “There will always be significant numbers of boys and men who would beat the best girls and women in head-to-head competition. Claims to the contrary are simply a denial of science.”

Science or anti-science, one thing has become abundantly clear: Riley Gaines isn’t backing down from this fight, which she began almost singlehandedly but which has since gathered both mass and momentum. And one day, we think, when the Democrats are forced to cut bait and this “transgender” cult has slunk back into obscurity, she’ll be a historic figure for the boldness, bravery, and D1 mettle she’s displayed.

And deservedly so. This isn’t a good fight she’s fighting; it’s a great one.

POSTSCRIPT: One Democrat witness, Kelley Robinson, who calls herself “the first queer Black president of the Human Rights Campaign,” tried to defend the transgender invasion of women’s sports by invoking the name of another tennis legend: “There’s been this news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in tennis,” she said. “And it’s just not the case. She is stronger than them.” To which Riley Gaines replied: “Both Serena and [her sister] Venus lost to the 203rd-ranked male tennis player. … My husband, he swam at University of Kentucky as well. In terms of accolades and in terms of national ranking, I was a much better swimmer than him. He could kick my butt any day of the week. Without trying.”