Nike has long championed transgender athletes, but the sportswear giant is being challenged to stand up for single-sex female sports on XX Day, a day celebrating biological women.
Jennifer Sey, CEO and founder of XX-XY Athletics, unveiled a one-minute video that shows a succession of young girls and women asking Nike to speak out against males competing in female sports based on gender identity.
“Dear Nike: Why won’t you stand up for me?” say the girls in successive frames. “Why do you claim to support women and girls, and yet when we need you most, you remain silent?”
The ad was released on XX Day, which fell on Thursday, Oct. 10, or “XX” in Roman numerals, and stands for the double-X female sex chromosome.
Former All-American swimmer Riley Gaines launched a campaign last year to mark Oct. 10 as Real Women’s Day, while the date is known internationally as Women’s Visibility Day. Supporters are encouraged to celebrate the day by wearing red.
Ms. Gaines reposted the video on X along with other prominent right-of-center figures, including podcast host Megyn Kelly and comedian Rob Schneider, and urged Nike to “just do it,” the company’s iconic slogan.
“Today males are claiming our identity, our sports, our spaces,” said the girls in the ad. “Men and boys are stealing opportunities, medals, trophies, and our future. It is not fair or just. In fact, it’s often dangerous, and yet you refuse to use your platform to stand up. You say you’re for social justice and progress, so why do you allow men’s rights to come before ours?”
The ad ends with a young girl saying, “Will you stand up for me? Will you just do it?”
Tomorrow is #XXDay. Please join me and @xx_xyathletics in standing up for girls, by sharing our new ad, “Dear Nike.” Do it. https://t.co/PRUTbUMKa2
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) October 9, 2024
Nike hasn’t exactly been neutral on the transgender issue. In 2021, the company ran an ad celebrating Mara Gomez, the first male-to-female transgender athlete to play in Argentina’s women’s professional soccer league.
In 2022, Nike issued a “Be True” toolkit calling for “safe spaces in sports” for transgender athletes, prompting the conservative group Consumers’ Research to tag the company with a “woke alert.”
The toolkit also said that “Nike also joined an amicus brief challenging the Idaho law prohibiting transgender women and girls from participating in high school and college sports teams. We are continuing our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Last year, Nike partnered with male-to-female transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to model and promote its sports bras and leggings.
The Washington Times has reached out to Nike for comment.
Nike is the latest mega corporation to make Dylan Mulvaney, a biological man, their female brand ambassador.
— Michael Seifert (@realmichaelseif) April 5, 2023
These companies are spitting in the faces of women every single day.
Stop giving them your money.
pic.twitter.com/KOEt09uv2e
Those marking XX Day included British author J.K. Rowling, former ESPN anchor Sage Steele, and Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Sarah Parshall Perry.
“Today is #XXDay the first global Women’s Visibility Day. So to my fellow women around the globe—the mothers, sisters, daughters, friends—I salute you,” Ms. Perry said on X. “But not to you guys parading around in woman-face asking us to give up safety, privacy, & fairness for you. Not you guys.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, introduced a resolution to mark Oct. 10 as “American Girls in Sports Day,” which went nowhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
“Today is October 10th — what would have been American Girls in Sports Day if Senate Democrats hadn’t blocked my resolution,” Ms. Blackburn said. “They don’t want to support real women. They want to dismantle Title IX & allow biological men to compete in women’s sports.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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