“See ya tomorrow with a soap box and megaphone” - Riley Gaines slams Penn State president for canceling Real Women's Day speech

Women’s Rights activist Riley Gaines slammed the president of Penn State University for canceling her speech on her self-declared Real Women’s Day on October 10. However, the 23-year-old does not seem to back off from delivering her speech at the prestigious university.

A week back, Gaines expressed her discontent with several reputed sports media outlets like ESPN for celebrating the achievement of trans women athletes on the occasion of Women's History Month in March.

The former NCAA swimmer was of the opinion that the outlets should have focused more on athletes who were biologically female. Therefore, to justify the Women's History Month celebration, Gaines ideated Real Women’s Day and urged everyone to observe the day with her on October 10.

However, just a day before the big day, Penn State University canceled Gaines’ speech in their institution. Expressing her disappointment, she shared a month-old video of President Neeli Bendapudi defending free speech and called her out for hypocrisy,

“No way President of Penn State makes a whole video explaining why public institutions are legally obligated to let "bigots" apparently like me on campus to speak then proceeds to CANCEL my speech tomorrow for real women's day (X/X) Have it your way. See ya tomorrow with a soap box and megaphone, Penn State!” Gaines wrote.

In the video, the president made her students aware that they could come across speakers whose speech might sound hateful. She also explained that the university cannot cancel such speakers because their university is legally obligated to let them in.

However, she encouraged students to speak out loudly and firmly against hateful speeches and that the university would stand in solidarity with its students.

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Why did Riley Gaines choose October 10 for the Real Women’s Day celebration?

In her week-old video, Riley Gaines pointed out ESPN celebrating the resilience and determination of trans women swimmer Lia Thomas. She also added instances of other channels recognizing trans women as biological women.

So, to celebrate the real women in the truest sense, Gaines ideated the Real Women’s Day with a special thought. She shared that she researched through several books and websites to find a suitable date for the day and at last, she found October 10.

Riley Gaines also explained how she chose the particular date,

“Now why October 10th? October 10th is the 10th day of the 10th month, which in Roman numerals is XX, and if you took fifth-grade biology, then you know XX is the female chromosome,"