Apparel company seeks to stop Colorado’s new trans discrimination law: ‘At risk for speaking the truth’
May 30, 2025
An apparel company that was founded to stand with women seeking to keep males out of women’s sports is challenging a Colorado law that it says forces acceptance of trans ideology.
The Christian Post reports that XX-XY Athletics filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado earlier this week, challenging an amendment to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.
The Colorado law was expanded to provide legal protections based on gender identity to include “chosen name” and “how an individual chooses to be addressed,” and applies it to advertising and public accommodations.
The lawsuit states, “This expresses the legislature’s intent that it be illegal for public accommodations like XX-XY Athletics, in their advertising, customer interactions, and elsewhere, to refer to transgender-identifying individuals with their given names or with biologically accurate language.”
The complaint continues, “If XX-XY Athletics refuses, the company faces cease-and-desist orders, expensive investigations, hearings, and civil and criminal penalties. Colorado officials have not hesitated to go after businesses for violating the same law in the past, torching the First Amendment in the process.”
National gymnastics champion Jennifer Sey launched XX-XY Athletics in March of 2024 to give “a voice to those advocating to protect women’s sports,” because many legacy athletic brands have failed to “stand up for female athletes who are losing competitions to men.”
According to the Christian Post, XX-XY Athletics is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative group that has successfully argued First Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including the case of Colorado cake maker Jack Phillips.
ADF claims that the Colorado law infringes on the company’s free speech rights by allowing anyone who perceives discrimination to file a complaint in court, with the possibility of fines or criminal penalities.
ADF Senior Counsel Hal Frampton, director of the ADF Center for Conscience Initiatives, explained in a statement released on Wednesday that, “Colorado continues to place itself on the wrong side of the law by forcing Coloradans to speak against their conscience.”
Frampton added, “XX-XY Athletics believes that women deserve to compete fairly and holds to the commonsense view that biological differences exist between men and women, but Colorado’s law places them at risk for speaking the truth.”
Photo: top, Credit: XX-XY Athletics