‘Save Girls Sports’ T-shirts Called ‘Transphobic’ by SF Chronicle Culture Critic: ‘The Next MAGA Hat?’
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T-shirts defending women’s sports have been condemned in the San Francisco Chronicle as a “transphobic” candidate for the next “MAGA hat.”
SF Chronicle columnist and cultural critic Soleil Ho wrote an op-ed lamenting the rise of what she calls “anti-trans activewear.” The articleheadlined: “Is this the next MAGA hat? Transphobic clothing is the new hotness,” citing T-shirts that read “Save Girls’ Sports” and “It’s common sense. XX ≠ XY.”
Two high school cross country athletes in Riverside, Calif., say they wore the shirts after a transgender athlete, who did not consistently attend practice or meet key varsity eligibility requirements, was named to the varsity team, replacing one of them. School athletic department officials allegedly forced students to remove or hide their shirts, claiming they created a “hostile” environment and comparing from wearing these shirts to wearing a swastika in front of Jewish students.
The girls sued their school district for allegedly interfering with their First Amendment rights and violating Title IX.
Assembly members Bill Essayli, front left, and Leticia Castillo, front right, take turns speaking at a press conference “about the preferential treatment of biological boys” and calling for the resignation of Riverside Unified’s superintendent ((Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images))
Ho, a former producer of the “Racist Sandwich” podcast, claimed the controversy was a “sad, empty spectacle that humiliates us all,” arguing that science says sex and gender are a spectrum.
“On a basic level, not all cis women even have XX chromosomes, so these shirts make no sense. What are we even arguing about?” wrote a SF Chronicle columnist. “Besides terrorizing the trans community in Riverside, the one clear outcome that this dust-up seems to have is a massive t-shirt sale.”
“All of this made me wonder – who and what benefits from creating more interest in this highly infamous anti-trans couture?” she asked.
Ho then called out former Levi’s CEO turned XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey, among others, who she said is “pretty vocal about the Riverside case — and happens to own a company whose sole purpose is to pump anti-trans activist outfits and fund right-wing influencers.”
Columnist also argued that the popularity of shirts with similar messages appearing online should not be interpreted as “a significant source of transphobia,” but rather, “They are probably being sold with the same level of political conviction as the shirts, in the same online storefronts, proclaiming: ‘Who needs happiness when do you drink beer?’ or ‘I’m with stupid.'”
A huge Trans flag was unfurled in front of the Supreme Court. (Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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“Between dropshippers, sellers who want to use real human pain and humiliation as a brand opportunity, and anti-trans influencers whose hatred of trans people seems to make up their entire personality, I don’t know which is sadder,” Ho lamented.
The opinion piece was quickly met with derision online, particularly from Sey herself.
“This article wins as the dumbest thing I’ve read so far this year,” she wrote on X. “Though I’m fine with the title. Yes, truth is the new ‘hotness’.”
Sey went on to quote the article: “Studies of human genetics show that sex, like gender, is a spectrum, and the cases of athletes like Algerian boxer Imana Khelif show that there are many, many ways a woman can look.”
“No — studies don’t show that sex is a spectrum,” Sey responded. “How do people get away with writing such blatant lies in an actual newspaper? Yes, there are many ways a woman ‘can look’.” That’s not what’s at stake here, in fact we wish this ‘movement’ would stop telling more masculine girls that they’re probably boys.”
Former president of the brand Levi Strauss & Co. Jennifer Sey discusses whether jeans are destroying the environment, XX-XY Athletics and South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley’s comments about trans women in sports.
Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
