By Paul Hammel
LINCOLN — Bill Williams says he’s received hateful emails, lost a couple of financial sponsors and even been criticized in a letter to a local newspaper after an organization he co-founded announced it was featuring a speaker opposed to transgender rights.
Critics, he said, are saying Patriotic Productions — best known for organizing more than a dozen “honor flights” for veterans to visit Washington, D.C. — is straying beyond its mission to “honor U.S. military veterans.”
None of that, Williams said Friday, will deter the Omaha-based nonprofit from hosting an event featuring Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer and an outspoken opponent of allowing trans females to compete against biological female athletes.
“We’ve wandered outside our mission before,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity, a great platform, for (Gaines) to talk about her first-hand experience in competing against a biological male.”
‘Controversial’ in some circles
“In some circles that’s controversial,” Williams added. “The vast majority of Americans know it’s unfair.”
Gaines, who has appeared several times on Fox News, will speak at a Patriotic Productions-sponsored event Aug. 27 at Embassy Suites in La Vista.
Gaines tied for fifth at the 2020 NCAA championships in the 200-yard freestyle with Lia Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania swimmer who became the first openly transgender woman to compete in the female events. Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle race.
The event is billed as a “call to action” and is described as being “not about politics or transgender” but about “safety, fairness and common sense.”
It also touches on the controversial issue of whether trans females should be allowed to compete in athletic contests against biological females.
Passage of a similar, hot-button, culture wars issue — banning gender-affirming procedures for minors — touched off an unprecedented, session-long series of filibusters in the Nebraska Legislature this year in which angry words were often exchanged between state senators.
The sponsor of the bill on blocking minors from transgender procedures, State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, will appear at the Gaines event. She is also the sponsor of another bill, the “The Sports and Spaces Act.”
That proposal, Legislative Bill 575, would block biological males from competing in K-12 sports designed for biological females, and block biological males from using school bathrooms and locker rooms designated for females.
20 states have bans
While the Nebraska bill failed to advance this year, at least 20 states now ban trans athletes from joining sports that align with their gender at birth, according to the Associated Press. The Sports and Spaces Act could advance to debate next year.
Williams said he and his wife, Evonne, have 11 grandchildren, including five granddaughters, and feel “very strongly” that this is the right thing to do.
“If we don’t stand up for females now, what’s going to happen to them?” he said of his granddaughters.
A “Public Pulse” writer to the Omaha World-Herald on July 13 said she was “disappointed and angered” that an organization dedicated to honoring veterans was promoting a speaker who promotes “trans discrimination.”
“I struggle to understand why this organization would host an event featuring such a divisive, anti-trans speaker. Many transgender Americans are proudly serving our country right now and many others have served honorably or died serving in the past,” stated the letter, signed by Mary Ann Folchert of Omaha.
When asked about the event, State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue had a similar response, saying that it “disrespected” the mission of honoring veterans.
‘Inappropriate’
“I think it’s inappropriate for those who served to be utilizing resources to get involved in culture wars,” Blood said.
Williams said it wasn’t the first time that Patriotic Productions has sponsored events or speakers that were non-military.
In 2020, amid the backlash against the police custody killing of George Floyd, the organization sponsored two “Back the Blue” events. The mother of one of the murder victims of spree killer Nikko Jenkins also spoke at one Patriotic Productions event, Williams said.
But, he added, the organization has never endorsed a political candidate and doesn’t plan on getting involved in the state legislative debate over trans participation in sports.
‘She deserves freedom of speech’
“I don’t think that’s our deal,” Williams said. “(Gaines) deserves freedom of speech … so we’re going to give her the opportunity.”
The Riley Gaines event asks for a $250 per person donation and includes sponsorship opportunities of up to $5,000.
Sponsors of past Patriotic Productions events include U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and his wife, Susanne Shore, and Sandhills Global, founded by Tom Peed. Peed has made headlines recently for donating $2 million toward the unsuccessful Lincoln mayoral candidacy of former State Sen. Suzanne Geist,and for hosting U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the U.S. House, at a dinner at his family’s Lincoln steakhouse.
Jordy Bahl, a star softball pitcher who recently transferred from the National Champion University of Oklahoma Sooners to her home state school, the University of Nebraska, will introduce Gaines at the event. Carol Frost, an Olympic discus thrower and mother of former NU football coach Scott Frost, will also speak about the impact of Title IX on women’s athletics.
Patriotic Productions is hosting a more traditional veterans event on July 29 at 10 a.m. Memorial Park in Omaha.
It will be a “remembrance ceremony” in honor of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice agreement to end the war in Korea.