Jennifer Sey (@jenseysf) / Instagram
Jennifer Sey, a former star gymnast, filmmaker and Levi Strauss & Co. Brand President, is starting her own clothing brand in support of women’s sports: XX-XY Athletics.
In doing so, Sey hopes to make it fashionable to defend the differences between men and women. She is teaming up with retired collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines and others in the effort to prevent “transgender” men from participating in women’s athletics.
Sey was a seven-time member of the U.S. Women’s National Artistic Gymnastics Team and was the 1986 U.S. Women’s All-Around National Champion. Her first memoir, “Chalked Up,” was released in 2008 and detailed abuse in the sport of gymnastics.
Sey also produced the 2020 Emmy-award winning Netflix documentary film, “Athlete A,” which connected the crimes of Larry Nassar to broader abuses in Olympic gymnastics.
“I’ve been standing up for female athletes since 2008 when I wrote my book Chalked Up, exposing the abusive training culture in gymnastics,” Sey told CatholicVote. “For me, as a person who benefited from Title IX when I competed in the 70s and 80s, I think it is incredibly important to protect it.”
Sey also had a successful business career working at Levi Strauss & Co., rising to Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and then Brand President. She was named one of Billboard’s Most Powerful People in Music and Fashion in 2016 and was twice named to Forbes’ Most Influential CMO list in 2019 and 2020.
But starting in 2020, she risked her reputation, community, and friendships to speak up against the harm being done to children through the extended closure of San Francisco’s public schools due to the COVID-19 virus. She resigned from Levi’s in 2022.
Now, Sey is continuing to take bold public stances, using the weight of her personal brand and XX-XY Athletics to give advice to the burgeoning “Save Women’s Sports” movement. In the process, she is even pulling in outspoken female athletes such as Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlon to model shirts and gear for the new company.
Sey on how to save women’s sports
On Friday, April 19, a new rule issued by President Biden’s Department of Education effectively ended single-sex sports, compelling schools to “accommodate” all students based on self-selected gender rather than biological sex. This would lead, in practice, to biological men invading every female space, from restrooms to sports.
“These protections for women and girls – which have been decimated in the most recent Title IX rewrite, are essential if we are going to strive for equality of opportunity,” remarked Sey, who that day took to X to post a list of actions on how to save women’s sports.
“Many people have asked me how they can help #SaveWomensSports, push back on the gutting of Title IX we saw by the Department of Education, and support @xx_xyathletics,” wrote Sey.
She then proposed four actions:
1. Speak up. On social media but in real life too. Have the hard conversations. Influence! Most Americans agree that women’s sports and spaces should be protected, but they are too afraid to say it out loud. You can inspire them to use their voices!
2. Give to @icons_women to support their lawsuit with @Riley_Gaines_ against the @NCAA
3. Wear this t-shirt. A portion of the proceeds go to ICONs. AND it will spark a conversation when you wear it. That hard but necessary conversation mentioned above.
4. Stand down. If you or your daughter compete in sports, stand down if faced with competing against a biological male. Sometimes you have to stand down to stand up.
‘This isn’t politics, it’s common sense’
In a conversation with CatholicVote, Sey described herself as politically un-affiliated: “I’m disillusioned with my former party – the Democrats – ever since the lockdowns and school closures during COVID. But there is much about the Republicans that I don’t necessarily align with either.”
“And so, I’m an independent and I will vote my conscience, prioritizing the issues that matter most to me,” she said.
The issues that matter to her have even led her to form an alliance with Gaines, a Christian college swimmer who tied with “transgender” Lia Thomas in the national championships of the March 2022 NCAA swimming Championship. Gaines was temporarily denied a trophy by the NCAA.
She has since then partnered with Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), a pro-women in sports organization, and started a campaign to force the NCAA to stop allowing biological men in women’s sports.
“Riley and I agree on this,” Sey said when asked why she supports Gaines’ efforts. “It doesn’t matter if we don’t agree on other issues. This isn’t politics, it’s common sense. Women’s sports and spaces are for women. Riley and I can stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder, when it comes to standing up for female athletes. I’m honored to fight beside her.”
To date, Sey’s XX-XY brand is the only athletic brand that has made a public stand for women’s single-sex sports. Sey does not hide why on her website: “It can be scary to stand up and do the right thing. To speak an unpopular truth. But the alternative is even scarier – because then we live in lies.”
