To amplify and add to your point: Riley Gaines made this particular X post on June 6 in direct response to an X post made earlier that same day by the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL).
The MSHSL is the governing body that makes the eligbility rules which say who can join which high school sports teams and participate in boys' and girls' interscholastic HS sports competitions in MN.
The post made by the MSHSL that Gaines was responding to showed a recent photograph of the Champlin Park girls' softball team, which made headlines for a string of stunning victories this year that culminated in the team winning the state girls' AAAA softball championship earlier this month.
The message the Minnesota state high school sports governing body posted above the photo reads as follows:
Minnesota High School League @MSHSL Jun 6
Meet Champlin Park, the Class AAAA Softball State Champion for 2025.
Below the photo, the time and date are shown, along with a notice revealing that the people in charge of communications and PR at the MSHSL decided not to allow anyone from the general public to reply to its post:
12:20 PM · Jun 6, 2025
Who can reply?
Accounts @MSHSL follows or mentioned can reply
As has been widely reported by mainstream press outlets, on social media, and by the MSHSL itself, the reason that Champlin Park won the girls state AAAA title - and won it easily - is because the pitcher on the Champlin Park girls' team is a 17-year-old boy who has consistently struck out most of the female batters on opposing teams by turning in "star performances" in the many girls' games he's pitched in all year.
In published accounts that anyone with an internet connection and search engine can see, the mainstream media, the MSHSL and the Champlin Park coach have described the 17-year-old male pitcher's performance in girls' softball and the string of shut-outs and victories he's led his team to this year as "dominating," "superb," "impressive," "amazing," "historic" and "unforgettable."
The photograph that the MSHSL chose to post on X for all the world to see on June 6 shows the face and physique of Marissa Rothenberger, the 17-year-old male who's the star pitcher for the Champlin Park girls' team, very clearly. What's more, in the photo the athletes are arranged in a way that makes the male player on this girls' team very easy to spot. Indeed, the way the photo is posed and shot makes the male player stand out.
In other words, by choosing to post this particular photo on X, the MSHSL made a deliberate decision to put the 17-year old boy in this case on public display on the internet for all the world to see.
After all, X is one of the most extremely high-profile and heavily-trafficked forums on the internet. Many more people see X posts than have accounts on the platform.
A couple of hours after the MSHSL made the post about the Champlin Park girls' softball team that was goadily designed to bring massive amounts of attention to the fact that the team's star pitcher is a 17-year old boy - but which MSHSL decided ahead of time no one from the public would be allowed to reply to - Riley Gaines made a post on X stating her reaction. In her post, Gaines copied & pasted the MHSL's earlier post exactly as it originally appeared, and said this:
Comments off lol
To be expected when your star player is a boy
2:35 PM · Jun 6, 2025
Gaines was not addressing her remarks directly at the 17-year-old boy, much less "bullying" him. She was directing her comments - and pointing the finger of blame - at the adults in MN who are responsible for allowing a 17-year-old boy to join a girls' HS softball team, play in girls' competitive softball games and tournaments, and "dominate" in girls' softball competition in the first place.
What's more, Gaines' comment didn't just criticize the MSHSL for making a post showing and celebrating a girls' HS softball team that won a state title because its star pitcher is a 17-year old boy who was allowed to hog the mound pretty much continually all season, giving him the chance to strike out girl after girl after girl again and again on all the opposing teams he played against.
Gaines' post was equally meant to critcize the MSHSL's decison to deny the public the right of reply to the particular post Gaines was taking issue with.
