Riley Gaines, Jennifer Sey, Sage Steele, Michele Tafoya & Carrie Lukas Announce a New Scholarship and Financial Support Program for Brave Female Athletes Who Stand Up for the Protection of Women’s Sports.
XX-XY Athletics, the only athletic brand that stands up for women’s sports and the protection of female only spaces, is launching the XX-XY Athletics Fund.
The XX-XY Athletics Fund is a donor advised fund and charitable giving vehicle funded by the brand, the CEO, the investors and employees. The inaugural program is the Courage Wins Award, designed to support and reward brave female athletes who stand up for women’s sports.
“We want to put our money where our mouth is,” said XX-XY Athletics CEO Jennifer Sey. “In starting this brand, our mission is to elevate athlete voices and normalize standing up for women and girls. To influence the culture in a positive way. The Fund is a vehicle to inspire women and girls to stand up for themselves, to not be intimidated by the bullying and name-calling. When athletes stand up for themselves – for fairness, safety, and privacy – they will not stand alone.”
Sey announced that XX-XY Athletics will contribute a portion of all proceeds to the XX-XY Athletics Fund as a continuation of the brand’s mission to protect women’s sports and spaces.
The Fund launches the same day that the Administration deploys its rewrite of Title IX, the landmark civil rights legislation passed in 1972 to protect women’s equal opportunity within the education system. The new rule erases its original meaning entirely, expanding “sex” based rights to “gender identity” rights.
While colleges and universities may not prohibit a student athlete from making a “political” statement because of their distinct status as students, athletes like Riley Gaines – former University of Kentucky swimmer who has been the face of this movement to protect women’s sports – and other female collegiate and high school athletes have been threatened with loss of scholarships if they speak out against competing against male athletes entering their sports. This has a chilling effect on athlete voices.
Today, the new federal rule vastly expands the category of speech that schools will now seek to punish under Title IX. These distortions of Title IX will encourage all schools that receive federal money to punish speech regarding sex, gender, sex roles, gender identity, and pronoun usage. The federal government is effectively silencing the majority of female athletes who say that women’s sports should be female only.
Right now, thousands of women and girls across the country are being forced to compete against males. More than 700 medals, team berths, scholarships and other awards have been stolen from women and girls in the past five years. And the number is only accelerating. Insisting trans-identified males be allowed to compete in women’s sports affects all female athletes. It is unfair, often unsafe, and these hard-working girls and women risk losing scholarships and sponsorships if they dare speak out or refuse to participate in the charade.
The XX-XY Courage Wins Award is designed to take monetary cancellation out of the equation to make standing up for women and girls and women’s sports a little bit easier, to elevate the voices of brave female athletes who take a stand, and to force colleges, universities and governing bodies to listen to athlete voices.
The Fund has brought on an Advisory Council to determine the award winners.
Joining Sey and Gaines are Sage Steele, Host of “The Sage Steele Show;” Michele Tafoya, Host of “The Michele Tafoya Podcast;” and Carrie Lukas, President of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF).
The XX-XY Athletics Fund will partner with the IWF, which led the Our Bodies, Our Sports “Take Back Title IX” Bus Tour, the most politically diverse group of women and women’s advocacy organizations to come together to stand up for women’s rights to distribute funds. Sey participated in the tour along with noted left-leaning women’s activists such as Sey; Kara Dansky from the U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International (WDI, USA); Martina Navratilova – LGBT activist and the greatest women’s tennis player of all time; and Nancy Hogshead – 3-time Olympic gold medalist, Champion Women Founder and CEO, and member of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group. XX-XY Athletics also partners with The Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS) to help fund the lawsuit for female athletes against the NCAA.
"At the end of every one of my podcasts, I sign off with the words, 'Be brave, do good,'” said Tafoya. “I believe in the power of courage and positivity. Being brave often requires sacrifice, but standing up for girls and women in sports is a cause worthy of that effort. And while courage is its own reward, women and girls who stand up and take risks deserve recognition. I’m grateful to take part in honoring them."
“We have to have girls who, when the whistle blows, don't run, they don't swim. They stand up on the block and they don't go," said Gaines. “Now, when we tell women to make that sacrifice, their bravery will be rewarded. Courage is contagious."
Learn more: https://www.xx-xyathletics.org/
XX-XY Athletics is the only athletic brand to stand up for women’s sports.