Railey Gaines, a women’s rights activist who has been fighting to bar transgender women from participating in female sports, recently revealed how the threats she receives have started to make her worried about the safety of her 3-month-old daughter.
On Tuesday, Gaines attended the supreme court hearing of a case that would lead to the fulfillment of her cause, and talked about how her child was with her there. As reported by the NY Post, she said, referring to her daughter, “She was there with me on the Supreme Court steps. And honestly, just as you said, there’s a level of emotion to it, especially when you have to consider the fact that you have a 3-month-old baby that you have to wrap in a bulletproof blanket because of the threats that were present there yesterday.”
Gaines also talked about how her little daughter has already met President Donald Trump and visited 16 states. She then moved on to slamming the Democrats for supporting trangender rights, saying, “So, all these Democrats who think they’re giving President Trump a middle finger by taking the opposite side of this issue, that’s not who you’re giving the middle finger to. You are giving the middle finger to my 3-month-old daughter and, honestly, it could bring tears to my eyes even talking about this. That is who I’m fighting for.”
Today, we stood on the steps of the Supreme Court defending girls and truth unapologetically.
This fight has never been political. It’s moral.
I want my future daughters to know I stood up when it mattered. pic.twitter.com/ayBu03A1qS
— Kaitlynn Wheeler (@WheelerKaitlynn) January 14, 2026
Gaines further emphasized the point that being the mother of a daughter has significantly helped her understanding about various issues. She said, “The past three months now, it’s shifted my perspective on everything. The things you thought you would never care about, they feel critical. And things that, at one point, you cared very deeply about, they seem mundane. My daughter — she’ll be right here with me tomorrow on the Supreme Court steps, because that’s who we’re fighting for.”
Tuesday’s Supreme Court argument was about two high profile cases, consisting of Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. As NY Post reported, “Idaho and West Virginia are among nearly 30 states that have enacted laws barring transgender students from competing on girls’ sports teams. Those laws were blocked in court following successful legal challenges brought by transgender athletes in 2020 and 2021.”
Both the transgender athletes are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. Talking about B.P.J.’s case, Joshua Block, ACLU Senior Counsel, said, “Unlike the case of a cisgender boy, excluding B.P.J. from the girls’ teams excludes her from all athletic opportunity while stigmatizing and separating her from her peers.”
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It should be noted here that Gailes did not keep her views limited to the win of the cases that are being fought, as she added, “Even with a favorable ruling, I will tell you, it’s not enough. Understand that the cases that are being heard are not to decide if states must protect us as women, if we must have rights to equal opportunity, to privacy and to safety. That’s not what it is. It’s if states even can. It’s the bare minimum that we’re fighting for.”
While Gailes is presenting a perspective that alienates transwomen from other women and claiming that it is necessary to protect women in general, transwomen are fighting a battle of their own to get access to basic humanitarian needs under Trump’s presidency.
