Jennifer Sey, the founder of a sportswear company that champions women’s sports, responded to a recent critical piece from a liberal news outlet by saying that the word “transphobic” means “nothing” to her.
Amid the ongoing controversy over the participation of biological males in women’s sports, San Francisco Chronicle columnist and cultural critic Soleil Ho wrote an op-ed lamenting the rise of so-called “anti-trans activewear.” The article, headlined, “Is this the next MAGA hat? Transphobic clothing is the new hotness,” cited T-shirts that read “Save Girls’ Sports” and “It’s Common Sense. XX ≠ XY.”
Sey, a former USA Gymnastics champion and advocate for female athletes who founded XX-XY Athletics, was thrown into the article for owning “a company whose sole purpose is to market anti-trans activewear and fund right-wing influencers.”
Sey originally responded to Ho’s piece by writing an X-post in which he joked, “This article wins for dumbest thing I’ve read so far this year.” She told me Fox News digital about her work at XX-XY Athletics, touting it as “the only brand standing up for the protection of women’s sports and spaces.”
Former elite gymnast Jennifer Sey spoke about her choice to create an activewear brand that champions women’s sports.
HOW TRANSGENDERISM IN SPORTS CHANGED THE 2024 ELECTIONS AND Ignited A NATIONAL COUNTERCULTURE
“I was inspired to start XX-XY Athletics because I looked around at all the athletic brands that claim to champion female athletes and ignore the issue before us, which is more and more men entering women’s sports,” Sey said. “Not only do I ignore it, but I would argue in many cases that I am on the wrong side of the issue.”
She also cited how, as a longtime San Francisco resident, she emerged as a major critic of local policies in the area during the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020, sparking controversies that have not endeared her to the local liberal media.
“The San Francisco Chronicle likes to make fun of me. They don’t like me being so critical of the city and their institutions and their governance,” she recalled. “That said, I guess if XX-XY athletics is the ‘new hotness,’ it sounds pretty trendy to me.”
Fox News Digital contacted Ho for comment.
She continued with the address the recent article criticize her directly.
“The article is generally… I have no other word for it other than ‘stupid’ and ‘full of lies,'” she said. “The author claims that large numbers of studies show that sex is a spectrum. That is simply not true. There are no studies. She cites no studies. She links to no studies. There is no evidence that sex is a spectrum. Sex is yes.” binary. I don’t know how a newspaper can’t even check the facts. I know it’s an op-ed, but you know, basic facts, I think, shouldn’t be violated in a real newspaper.
Jennifer Sey with brand ambassadors Paula Scanlan (L) and Riley Gaines (R)
Still, she said, she will gladly accept the publicity to boost her business, “and the fact is it’s good for the truth.”
Sey also specifically aligned himself with the writer’s ideology.
“It’s an ideological perspective, it’s activism, it’s not a biological reality,” said Sey, who mocked the idea that “a person is what he says he is.”
“That’s just not true,” Sey replied. “There is such a thing as biological reality.”
She was amused at the comparison to Trump supporters’ distinctive red “MAGA hats.”
“Well, MAGA hats are pretty popular,” she said. “I think people wear them to make a statement about their values and where they stand on the political issues of the day. You know, I believe XX-XY Athletics is a statement of just basic truth , biological truth, and I think it’s becoming more and more the uniform of common sense and more and more people don’t care if they’re called “transphobes” because they wear the shirt, or “bigots” because they wear the shirt, because they know that name-calling is the authority of people without argument.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Her roots in calling out the invasion of women’s spaces run deep.
“I was the first former elite gymnast to speak out about the abuse in the sport, the emotional, physical and sexual abuse in the sport,” she recalls. “So I think it’s really important to protect female athletes, and I think this is an important issue within that same category. Female athletes deserve to train safely, and they deserve privacy, they deserve fairness, and I can’t believe that anyone who calls themselves a feminist or a women’s rights advocate wouldn’t see that the issue here is not rooted in biological reality , and I will not propagate lies.”
