Sunday’s Portland Thorns match against the Washington Spirit came with a side of controversy after a woman, who claimed to be a fan of the professional women’s soccer team, said she and her friends were removed from Providence Park. 

According to Amy Sousa, an unidentified stadium employee told the group they’d been notified of something “transphobic.” Sousa also said she and her friends were asked to leave Portland’s The Sports Bra—a sports bar showcasing women’s athletics—because they were wearing XX-XY shirts. While ostensibly a clothing brand, XX-XY Athletics has found itself at the center of the controversy surrounding the inclusion of transgender girls and women in sports—largely by the company’s own design. The brand’s name is a reference to the pair of chromosomes that some use to determine the sex of humans at birth—though science has established there are many natural variations that contradict the assumption that sex is a simple binary classification.

If the prior incidents sound familiar, it’s because a similar group recently stirred up controversy at a Portland Fire game. The shirts, by XX-XY Athletics, represent the brand’s mission. Per their website, that includes “protecting fair competition for women.” XX-XY Athletics has found a stalwart champion in Riley Gaines, the conservative commentator who sprang into the national consciousness in 2022 after she tied for fifth place with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at a meet. Gaines has since positioned herself deeply inside the conservative political world, has been interviewed by conservative journalists and hosts, and has more recently shown up at WNBA games. 

The company was founded by retired gymnast Jennifer Sey in March 2024. Per a report from Mother Jones, Sey has also found a way to profit off the controversy. XX-XY Athletic’s “branded shirts have become a de facto uniform for the anti-trans activists who now stage rallies outside WNBA games,” to the tune of a sixfold increase in sales. Sey has also frequently penned articles decrying the “woke mob” for the Brownstone Institute, a think tank that opposes COVID-19 vaccination and masking. 

The Thorns told media the group was removed from the stadium after they passed out unapproved material—a direct violation of Providence Park’s fan experience guidelines. Members of the group claimed they were encouraged to attend the game via a post shared on social media. Sousa, who describes herself as a “modern day gender abolitionist” on X (formerly Twitter), told the Mercury she was responsible for sharing the post inviting women “to come to the game with me wearing XXXY t-shirts or other gender critical t-shirts.” (Sousa’s partner has been a season ticket holder of Thorns tickets since “year one,” and the pair have been together for four years.)

A representative for the Thorns said in a statement shared with the Mercury, “During our September 6 match against the Washington Spirit, individuals were removed from Providence Park for distributing unapproved materials, a violation of the Fan Experience Guidelines at the stadium. We are reviewing the incident. Our priority remains fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for every fan at Providence Park.”

Sousa claims those materials were “five copies of the [NWSL] rules of conduct, the fan rules of conduct.”

Sousa shared a photo of her outfit on the social media platform and wrote, “This is what I was wearing when I got ejected from the @ThornsFC @NWSL. A call was apparently made against me that I’m ‘transphobic.’ Apparently you can’t go to see women’s sports while having personal political beliefs in your head that you don’t even share!!” The XX-XY logo is visible on her red jacket in the photo.

Sousa also said staff at The Sports Bra told her that the group’s clothing made “someone feel unsafe.” 

“The Portland Thorns insists [sic] on telling lies about our group,” Sousa wrote in another post. “In reality we were targeted. Rose City Riviters [sic] sent out rats to seek me out and censor me. I spoke to no one beyond our own group and I was ejected because of my social media platform.”

The Mercury has contacted Rose City Riveters for comment. The group describes itself as “the preeminent supporters group for women’s professional soccer anywhere in the world.”

When reached for a statement, Sports Bra’s Senior Vice President of Marketing & Operations, Deborah Pleva, referred the Mercury to the company’s statement: “Our mission is to support, promote, and empower girls and women in sports, and to be clear: Trans girls are girls, and trans women are women. We will always support and celebrate them at The Sports Bra. Since we opened our doors, we have supported the LGBTQ+ community. We are known as an inclusive place of belonging, especially for traditionally marginalized and historically excluded community members.”

“On Sunday, Sept. 6, a group of guests entered The Sports Bra wearing apparel displaying a message that directly promotes excluding transgender women from women’s sports. One of our team members asked the group to either cover the anti-trans messages on their shirts or to leave. They opted to leave while filming the exchange,” the statement continued. “We welcome people of every identity and background, but we will not allow messages or conduct that demean or exclude the communities The Sports Bra exists to serve and celebrate. We stand strong in our commitment to inclusion.”

Pleva also pointed the Mercury to a lengthy blog post shared on The Sports Bra’s website. 

The attempt to attend the Thorns’ game while wearing XX-XY gear is part of a trend that’s been seen in Portland and other cities this summer. Anti-transgender activists have attempted to sow discord and disrupt women’s sports events, seemingly in support of Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham. In an interview published by ESPN in July, Cunningham told the sports network, “I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

While speaking to the Mercury outside the Moda Center on July 31, an XX-XY activist said the organization has not heard from Cunningham or the Indiana Fever, something that has not diminished their enthusiasm for showing up to games anyway.

There’s also a deeper political motivation behind the so-called support. Conservative influencers, commentators, and politicians have sought to limit the inclusion of transgender girls and women in sports since at least 2021, when pieces of anti-transgender legislation were introduced. Per Facing History & Ourselves, the Human Rights Campaign also cited the same year as “the deadliest year to date for transgender and gender non-conforming people, with a greater total number of deaths than in the preceding six years.”

Those efforts have ramped up as the United States approaches a midterm election that’s been described as a referendum on the Trump administration. 

Transgender people make up approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population, and in December 2024, NCAA President Charlie Baker said that “less than 10” transgender athletes were participating in collegiate sports. There are currently no active, openly transgender players in the NWSL. In September 2020, Quinn came out as non-binary and transgender while playing for the OL Reign (now the Seattle Reign). Quinn opted to use their last name as a mononym and is the first non-binary transgender athlete to both compete at and win at the Olympic Games, and the first openly transgender and non-binary athlete at the FIFA World Cup. Kumi Yokoyama came out as a transgender man in June 2021 while playing for the Washington Spirit. Both have since left the league.