A New Hampshire school district has given a ridiculous defense for its decision to punish parents for speaking out against having biological males compete in high school girls' sports.
Districts across the country are grappling with the effort to push gender ideology into high school sports. Many parents, athletes, and community members have expressed opposition to the effort to force female athletes to compete against males.
In many of these cases, progressives seeking to advance the trans agenda have resorted to using government to stifle opposing voices, which is what happened in this case.
During a Friday hearing, the Bow school district defended its decision to bar two parents from attending their daughters’ soccer matches because they wore pink wristbands marked “XX” to protest the inclusion of male athletes in girl's sports, according to The Associated Press.
Superintendent Marcy Kelley suggested that their actions were aimed at addressing potential threats. “When we suspect there’s some sort of threat…we don’t wait for it to happen,” she said, comparing it to school officials intervening with students before a fight breaks out.
Kelley also claimed the wristbands were a form of harassment against trans-identified athletes. “This was organized and targeted. If we were to allow harassment, we’re liable,” she said, according to the report.
The controversy began when parents Kyle Fellers and Anthony Foote began wearing the wristband to show their support for protecting female athletes.
In New Hampshire, a concerned father has been banned from school grounds for expressing his concern about this practice.
That father, Anthony Foote, has been banned (temporarily) from school grounds, which means he can't watch his daughter's soccer games. His infraction? He and several other parents wore "XX" armbands to a soccer game to protest the presence of a boy on the opposing girls' soccer team. Foote and at least one other parent were served with trespass notices for their protest:
Anthony Foote of Bow, New Hampshire, told the New Hampshire Journal he received a notice of trespass from Bow and Dunbarton School Districts Superintendent Marcy Kelley after he wore armbands in support of girls-only sports to his daughter’s high school soccer game Tuesday.
"My daughter’s playing in the homecoming game this weekend, and I’m banned until the 23rd," Foote told the publication. "I can’t watch her play in homecoming, which is ridiculous."
Kelley took issue with Foote’s ongoing opposition to how the district is trying to force parents to conform to progressive gender ideology when it comes to sports. "[We] described receiving strongly-worded emails from Foote in which he called himself a 'real leader' who was prepared to take action and seeing his social media posts urging others to attend the game,” she said.
One parent claimed to have overheard conversations in which attendees discussed wearing dresses while heckling the trans-identified player.
Meanwhile, Parker Tirrell, a transgender athlete in the district, and another athlete have filed a lawsuit challenging New Hampshire’s law banning trans-identified athletes from participating in sports that align with their chosen gender identity. This practice is currently being allowed as the litigation continues.
The banned parents argue that wearing the wristbands was a form of silent protest in support of “reserving girls’ sports for those born female,” The Associated Press noted. They are currently suing the district over the matter.
It is hard to categorize this fiasco as anything but a flagrant violation of the parents’ First Amendment rights. The district’s decision to punish speech based on its message is essentially limiting expression based on its content.
The Supreme Court’s 1965 ruling Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District decided that school officials cannot censor student speech unless it substantially disrupts the educational process. While the ruling does not directly address parents, it could suggest that speech at sporting events should also be protected.
Moreover, the school’s argument that wearing a wristband constitutes harassment is absurd on its face. Unless the parents are directly accosting the trans-identified student on or off the field, it makes no sense to ban them from their daughters’ soccer matches.
This is nothing more than a move aimed at using government to silence people who disagree with the notion that female athletes should be compelled to face off with males who are physically stronger and faster. Hopefully, the judge in this case will make the right decision.
