{"id":44374,"date":"2025-05-15T16:30:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T20:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=44374"},"modified":"2025-05-15T16:30:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T20:30:47","slug":"riley-gaines-featured-in-new-ad-mocking-nike-for-its-support-of-men-in-womens-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/05\/riley-gaines-featured-in-new-ad-mocking-nike-for-its-support-of-men-in-womens-sports.html","title":{"rendered":"Riley Gaines Featured in New Ad Mocking Nike For Its Support of Men in Women\u2019s Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_44377\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44377\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/05\/XX-XY_credit-XX-XY-YouTube.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-44377\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/05\/XX-XY_credit-XX-XY-YouTube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-44377\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">XX-XY \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/xx_xyathletics\/status\/1922649161788194916\">new ad<\/a> released by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xx-xyathletics.com\/\">XX-XY Athletics<\/a> is getting a lot of buzz on social media. The company was founded by Jennifer Sey and has been open about its opposition to allowing transgender women, biological men, compete in women\u2019s sports. The new ad opens with a question: \u201cOver 1900 females have been displaced by males in women\u2019s sports. Yet Nike remains silent. So, we asked female athletes if they could say one thing to @Nike, what would it be?\u201d Then the ad features responses from female athletes like Payton McNabb, who suffered brain damage after a trans player spiked a volleyball into her head, and Riley Gaines, who has been one of the biggest voices against men in female sports after her swim team allowed Lia Thomas, a biological man, to join the team.<\/p>\n<p>In her video response, Gaines sent Nike a challenge. \u201cIf I had a chance to talk to Nike, I would tell them to just do it. That&#8217;s your slogan, isn&#8217;t it, Nike? Just do it,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I say it, I mean the right thing. And that&#8217;s defending women and biological reality.\u201d McNabb shared that her injury kept her from being able to play volleyball in college. \u201cYou&#8217;re saying that you&#8217;re supporting women, but you&#8217;re not actually doing anything. You are using us when it&#8217;s convenient, but in private, you&#8217;re not doing anything about it,\u201d she said. \u201cWomen\u2019s sports aren\u2019t just a marketing tool,\u201d said another female athlete.<\/p>\n<p>Nike has stood by the inclusion of transgender women in women\u2019s sports, despite the growing public outcry against it. In 2023, the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/pamdanziger\/2025\/05\/13\/nike-makes-leadership-changes-as-sales-fall-and-controversies-continue\/\">stated<\/a>, \u201cWe\u2019re continuing our commitment to helping shape a strong culture of LGBTQIA+ belonging and visibility in sport. We\u2019re working to expand sport for the next generation through community grants, athlete partnerships, impactful storytelling, and products that celebrate the full spectrum of LGBTQIA+ expression. Because sport is better when all athletes are free to play as themselves.\u201d The brand, however, continues to see its revenue fall, dropping 9 percent in its third quarter.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, <em>Outkick <\/em>reported there was evidence that the company had funded a study in favor of transgender youths in sports. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sports\/boston-childrens-hospital-promoted-nike-funded-transgender-athlete-study\"><em>Outkick<\/em><\/a> Boston Children&#8217;s Hospital attending physician and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical school Kathryn Ackerman noted the company\u2019s support during a 2023 seminar. \u201cRecently, we got some money from Nike, who wanted to study this more\u2026 they wanted to look at transgender folks who are going through the transition younger. So, if we are talking about athletes who are pausing puberty and then doing gender-affirming care and cross-hormonal treatment, what happens to them over time,\u201d she said at the time. An unnamed Nike executive apparently told <em>Outkick <\/em>the study was \u201cnever initialized.\u201d Sey, however, criticized the study. \u201cWhy on earth would a company that makes running shoes fund \u2014 or at the very least incentivize \u2014medical experiments on children?\u201d <a href=\"When%20it%20comes%20to%20girls\u2019%20athletic%20abilities,%20they%20are%20not%20impaired%20boys.%20It\u2019s%20a%20demeaning%20and%20degrading%20starting%20point%20to%20assert%20that%20if%20we%20just%20hamper%20boys%20enough%20it%20might%20be%20ok%20for%20them%20to%20compete%20against%20girls\">she asked<\/a>. \u201cWhen it comes to girls\u2019 athletic abilities, they are not impaired boys. It\u2019s a demeaning and degrading starting point to assert that if we just hamper boys enough it might be ok for them to compete against girls.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new ad released by XX-XY Athletics is getting a lot of buzz on social media. The company was founded by Jennifer Sey and has been open about its opposition to allowing transgender women, biological men, compete in women\u2019s sports. The new ad opens with a question: \u201cOver 1900 females have been displaced by males&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":44377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Riley Gaines Featured in New Ad Mocking Nike For Its Support of Men in Women\u2019s Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"XX-XY Athletics ad challenges Nike&#039;s stance on trans athletes, sparking debate over women&#039;s sports and biological reality.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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