(LifeSiteNews) – Former University of Kentucky All-American swimmer Riley Gaines pledged to keep working to protect women’s sports from gender-fluid ideology in every state in the union this week after attending a ceremonial event for Texas’ Save Women’s Sports Act, which is slated to become law next month.

Signed in June, SB 15 requires intercollegiate athletic teams to restrict participation in sex-specific teams to actual members of the correct sex as documented by birth certificates, with colleges and universities subject to civil lawsuits if they do not comply. It takes effect September 1. Female students may still compete on men’s teams in cases where a corresponding women’s team is not available.

On Wednesday, Gaines spoke with the Daily Wire about her experience at the event, a ceremonial signing highlighting the law with Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Paula Scanlan. The event was met with leftist protesters screaming obscenities, despite the presence of small children.

DISGUSTING: Protestors targeted young girls outside of the signing of the #SaveWomensSports Act in Texas.

Girls, as young as 5, were harassed & called vulgar names, all for joining the celebration of protecting equal athletic opportunity. pic.twitter.com/QdPFpThq6L

— Independent Women’s Voice (@IWV) August 7, 2023

“To no one’s surprise we were met with protesters,” Gaines said. “And to no one’s surprise, these protesters were some of the most vengeful, hateful, soulless individuals. They were yelling profanities at children, they were throwing bottles and pouring drinks, and spitting on people.”

“There are pockets of these protesters who are doing everything in their power to dissuade us from our argument, but they can’t do it with truth, they can’t do it with science, they can’t do it with logic, or reasoning, or, quite frankly, common sense,” she continued. “And that’s why they resort to name-calling. That’s why they resort to spitting.”

However, Gaines called the backlash “almost encouraging” rather than a deterrent: “We are doing the right thing. And this treatment, while it’s unfortunate, it encourages me to continue on and to continue pushing this in all 50 states,” she said. 

Mandatory inclusion of gender-confused individuals in opposite-sex sports is commonly promoted as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, the fundamental physical differences between the sexes, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities. 

There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winning women’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be fully negated by hormone suppression.

In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men [do] not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone therapy;” therefore, “the advantage to transwomen [biological men] afforded by the [International Olympic Committee] guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”