Former collegiate champion swimmer Riley Gaines took Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to task on Wednesday during a hearing in which she promoted allowing only biological women to compete in female sporting events after he accused Republicans of promoting “hateful rhetoric” against trans people.

Gaines was appearing as a witness for the GOP during a hearing on LGBTQ civil rights, during which Durbin claimed lawmakers had to be careful when discussing the issue.

“At this point, I’d like to remind our colleagues, our children are listening, and they are in danger,” Durbin said, according to Fox News. “In fact, today, transgender youth are among the most at risk of homelessness, depression, and death by suicide. So, when these young people who are already struggling hear politicians amplify hateful rhetoric that denies their very existence, what message does it send?”

He offered no evidence to support his claims.

At one point, Gaines expressed her concerns and urged Durbin to consider the challenges faced by biological women and girls, emphasizing the potential disadvantages they may encounter when competing against biological males during sporting events.

“Sen. Durbin, in your opening statement, you had mentioned this rhetoric,” she said. “You had mentioned that, what message does it send to trans individuals? And my comeback to that is, what message does this send to women, to young girls, who are denied of these opportunities?”

“So easily, their rights to privacy and safety thrown out of the window to protect a small population, protect one group as long as they’re happy,” she said. “What about us? That is the overall general consensus of how we all felt in that locker room.”

Without offering any direct rebuttal, Durbin claimed there’s “no evidence” that trans-women — biological males — perform better than biological females in competitions.

“Since reference was made to my earlier statement, I would just like to add something for the record: There is no evidence that transgender athletes are an issue in certain levels of sports. No transgender female athlete has ever won an Olympic medal in women’s sports, though the International Olympic Committee has allowed transgender athletes to compete since 2004,” Durbin said.

“But one non-binary athlete who was assigned female at birth won a medal in women’s soccer in 2021,” he added.

It should be noted that if Durbin were correct, boys and girls, men and women, would have never been segregated into their own sports categories in the first place.