In the latest episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone welcome Jennifer Sey — seven-time U.S. National Gymnastics Team member, 1986 All-Around National Champion, founder of XXXY Athletics, and chairwoman of Protect Our Children Colorado. Sey has turned her voice and experience as a champion athlete into advocacy for women’s sports, arguing that biological males competing in girls’ divisions threatens both fairness and safety.
Sey recounts the urgency behind Protect Our Children’s initiative in Colorado, which seeks to enshrine protections for female athletes at the state level. While federal executive orders can shift with political winds, Sey argues that state-level legislation is crucial to preserve opportunities created by Title IX. She points to data showing dozens of instances where biological males have displaced girls in track and field competitions — from high school podiums to international athletic events.
But for Sey, this fight isn’t just about records and trophies. It’s about dignity, privacy, and opportunity. She describes a climate where many young athletes and their parents quietly agree but are too afraid to speak out — fearing backlash, job loss, or being labeled bigots. Her message: courage matters. Adults must step up to protect fairness for the next generation of athletes, and young women must know they are not alone in defending their spaces.
Sey draws on her own experience of facing public criticism — from her outspoken stance on COVID restrictions to her current advocacy — to encourage others to withstand the pressure. “You’ll face name-calling, maybe even social ostracism,” she admits, “but you’ll gain integrity, self-respect, and a community of people who share your values.”
At its core, this episode challenges listeners to consider a simple but controversial question: Should girls’ sports remain exclusively for biological females? For Sey, the answer isn’t just yes — it’s a matter of fairness, safety, and truth.
Transcript
**Sam Stone: **Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. With yours Chuck Warren. I’m Sam Stone. Our next guest up today is someone I am very excited to have on the program. I know we both are. Jennifer Sey, seven-time member of the U.S. National Gymnastics Team, 1986 U.S. All-Around National Champion. She’s also the founder and CEO of XXXY Athletics and serves as chairwoman for Protect Our Children Colorado. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us. Welcome to the program.
**Jennifer Sey: **Thank you for having me.
**Chuck Warren: **So why is protect our children necessary?
**Jennifer Sey: **Well I’m that chair person for uh... one specific initiative uh... within the sort of there’s three of them in fact but uh... the one I’m chairing is to protect girls sports. You know our girls deserve their own sports, there own spaces and uh... you know I grew up an athlete you mentioned my achievements there.
I started gymnastics just two years after title nine passed the landmark legislation that gave girls the same opportunities as boys within sports and the education system. And you know the minute one boy breaches the boundary of girls sports or spaces those are no longer girls sports or spaces. As much as the other side wants us to believe that it’s not happening we know that it is in the first half of this year alone there were over sixty instances at the high school level in track and field alone of boys stealing podium spots from girls in one sport.
**Sam Stone: **Yeah, I was at the city of Phoenix when the first sort of transgender bathroom, transgender issue set with the transgender bathroom bill. And I remember saying at the time, I’m not really worried about the tiny percentage of people who are actually transgendered. I’m much more worried about the giant portion of population that are perverts and will take advantage.
**Jennifer Sey: **Well and I’m much more worried about the girl and women they deserve private the safety and fairness and it is happening it’s happening all over the country. International or World Athletic which is the global governing body for track and field just announced one that they would be doing sex testing an olympic movement event and they announced that their findings were in the last twenty years they’ve been sixty instances of males winning regional or global level spots in track and field. I mean thats insane.
****Chuck Warren: **Yeah.
**Sam Stone: **Thats nuts.
**Jennifer Sey: **Now these are not all trans identified. Some of these are athletes with dfd it doesn’t matter I don’t care which it is. Men are not women, males should not be competing in in women and girls sports. It’s just increasing every day. There was an executive order signed in February of this year I was there for it. That’s great, that is not permanent legislation.
Another President could just change it with you know drop of the hat and so we need legislation in our state in Colorado to ensure that girls have their own sports and spaces. It needs to be legislated at the national level as well. But in half of the states in this country and all of the blue state you still have boys competing and winning in girls sports. In California governor Gavin Newsom uh... is sueing the federal government to continue to allow boys to compete in girls sports.
So we are far from done with this issue and despite the fact that it’s a majority issue eighty percent of Americans agree with that most are still too afraid to speak out. That I am asking them for the citizens of Colorado that they sign this petition so this thing can get on the ballot we can protect girls and women in Colorado.
**Sam Stone: **It’s sad that we have to do this because quite frankly.
**Chuck Warren: **It’s bizarre.
**Sam Stone: **It’s bizarre. And also I’m a little bothered by this. The fathers in all these blue states, the mothers, the fathers, they need to step up and protect their daughters.
**Chuck Warren: **Yeah. So let me, so what would Jennifer say? She is the chairwoman of, protect our girls sports from biological males in Colorado. Go there, sign the initiative. Jennifer, you’ve probably have talked to hundreds if not thousands of parents and young women and girls who are in sports about this issue. Overwhelmingly, what do these young ladies tell you? What do the parents tell you? What is their story?
**Jennifer Sey: **Well there are many young women and you know we bring them on to our team our athlete team at xxxyathletics there are young women across the country who are speaking out. We’ve established an award we call the courage wins award that meant to take this thing out of cancellation and monetary cancellation. In particular we want to encourage more girls to speak out. They are they’re standing down, they’re refusing to compete, they’re turning their back on the award stand, speaking at school board meetings.
But the adults the same adults who really should be leading the charge are leaving these girls out there to defend themselves and its insane. I don’t understand it and they they feel relatively unsupported in their communities uh... they know behind the scenes that their teammates agree with them uh... and that many parents of girls on the team agree with them. But most are too afraid afraid to speak out.
**Chuck Warren: **Why Jennifer why? Why are they afraid?
**Jennifer Sey: **You know what they’re afraid of being called a bigot it’s silly.
**Chuck Warren: **Yeah.
**Jennifer Sey: **Who cares who care we’re gonna look back whenever the smoke clears on this thing. We’re gonna look on this time as the most insane period in history when we let a loud bullying minority tell us that men can be women if they say they are. I mean it’s so dumb on state the people who have been silent or have been advocating for that silly idea, silly and dangerous idea are gonna pretend they never said it.
We know thats true they are going to memory hole this thing. But right now they are very loud and they are very pulling and and not only do they have the mic but they’ve captured mainstream media and so it feels very scary and I have people that you know young athletes I talk to every day that we talk about bringing on board for the branch you at at the last minute say I can’t do it i’m too scared they’re afraid of name-calling, they’re afraid of violence now in this current environment which I understand, afraid of losing their job, there they’re afraid of all it.
**Chuck Warren: **But you have faced all this. tell people what to expect. You have faced it. You came out against the COVID restrictions in California. You’ve moved to Colorado. I am sure you’ve been called every name in the book and you just sort of get to the point where you roll your eyes. But tell people what can they expect and why they need to stay on their ground.
**Jennifer Sey: **Well that’s a great point. One you can expect that you will be able to stand tall and look at yourself in the mirror and and feel that you have integrity and did the right thing and spoke the truth and you stood up for your daughter. You will face some backlash and that’s okay. You’ll find a whole new community of people that stand with you. I think the days of kind of losing your job over this sort of thing are done.
So its social ostracizing that people are afraid of which seems really silly to me. Do you really want to be friends with these people anyway that would you know kick you out of a friend group because you say my daughter deserves fairness and safety but people are afraid of it. They they don’t want to it you know there are people I talk to that don’t seem to understand how quote-unquote controversial and I do let them know what to expect.
And I let them know that I’m standing with them and there’s an army of girls and women standing with them as well from all political background. I mean this is a uniting issue. Its 80% of Americans. 70% Californians agree. So we we will win but we need that 80% you know in Colorado. So sign this petition and vote after the ballot initiative. More broadly than Colorado we need Americans across the country to stand up and just say I believe in biological reality. That should not be scary.
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