At the very beginning of 2025, we started conversations with reporter Ali Donaldson from Inc. Magazine about XX-XY Athletics. It’s a very mainstream publication — primarily focused on entrepreneurs and start-ups.
Most of our coverage in the press comes in what is dismissed (by our critics) as “right wing” outlets. But Inc is politically neutral.
We were excited at the prospect of the business being covered in a fair and thoughtful way by a business publication with no political leanings. We took a risk agreeing to it. People love to smear our founder and the brand. But we took the leap, figuring even if it was a hit job it gets the issue discussed in the mainstream which is what we — in the movement — need.
On October 20th, the article was published and it was very fair.
The headline says that we are on a mission to save women’s sports, which is true. It also includes the phrase “Critics say it is cashing in on the anti-trans movement.” The reporter didn’t call the brand “anti-trans,” she only cited that our critics do. Which is true. We’ll take it. For now.
In the long run we want to reframe this discussion as being about women’s rights. We are a pro-woman brand. And for now, anyone taking the pro-woman position is challenged – at the very least – as “anti-trans.”
Over time we strive to change that framing of the issue. But for now, we are pleased that we were treated fairly and not smeared as bigoted in the article.
Here’s our favorite part of the article. It’s about Jen, our founder:
Sey has been a pariah before, but each time, she says she has been vindicated.
In 2008, nearly a decade before Larry Nassar went to prison for sexual abuse, Sey published her memoir, Chalked Up, which detailed emotional and physical abuses she faced as an elite gymnast. Her account did not go over well with former teammates or USA Gymnastics. A woman who trained at the same gym as Sey called into Sey’s live interview with NPR and compared her to James Frey, author of the famously fabricated memoir A Million Little Pieces. Sey says Steve Penny, then-president and CEO of USA Gymnastics, called her at work and left threatening voicemails.
But in 2020, when Sey revisited the subject of USA Gymnastics’s toxic culture as a producer of the Netflix documentary Athlete A, the reception was decidedly different. The film garnered rave reviews and won an Emmy Award.
Jen even gets fair coverage about her covid dissenting ways. That in and of itself is a huge win.
Here’s what the article says about Jen’s covid takes:
Now, more than five years after Sey first spoke out against strict lockdown measures and school closures, the consensus has dramatically shifted. Test scores have fallen to their lowest levels in more than 30 years. Doctors have acknowledged the mental health impact of the closures. Even Democrats, such as former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, have come out and said schools were closed for far too long.
Sey is confident that history will repeat itself again when it comes to her latest fight. “The wind’s going to blow another way soon,” she says. “There will be redemption.”
The only part we would take major issue with is citing head of the NCAA Charlie Baker’s comment about there being only 10 ten “trans” athletes in the NCAA. This is not an accurate depiction of the situation of males competing in women’s sports.
According to hecheated.org there are close to 5000 instances of males stealing awards in athletic competitions from women. Including team sports, that number rises to nearly 10,000.
World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, has stated that between 50-60 male DSD athletes in track and field have taken the places of women in Olympic movement races over the last 20 years. That’s one event — track and field. At the very highest Olympic level.
So, the “there are only 10” number is misleading. It is what Baker has said. And it gets repeated as fact. But it isn’t.Thanks to Inc. Magazine for the fair coverage.There will be redemption. We are sure of it. It might take a while, but it will come. Because truth always outs in the end.
