Judge declines bid by New Hampshire parents to protest transgender players at school soccer games
CONCORD, N.H. — A federal judge on Tuesday declined to issue an immediate injunction that some New Hampshire parents had sought to allow them to wear pink wristbands with “XX” on them at girls’ high school football games, in protest of the playing of transgender girls.
But the judge did rule that a father, who was banned by the school district for the remainder of the season after a protest and altercation, could watch his daughter’s games and pick her up from soccer practice as long as he was not involved in the games . any protest activity.
Judge Steven McAuliffe said the idea of whether parents can passively protest transgender players at student sporting events is legally nuanced and complex, and he wanted to hear more detailed arguments presented by both the parents and the school district at the next hearing. will probably take place at the end of November.
The case arose after three parents and a grandparent of Bow High School football players sued the school district, alleging their rights were violated when they were barred from school grounds for wearing the wristbands, which represent the female chromosome pair.
Two of the parents wore the wristbands during the second half of a Sept. 17 game against Plymouth Regional High School to “silently express their opinions on the importance of reserving women’s sports for biological females,” according to their lawsuit filed by attorneys of the Institute. for free speech.
But in its response, the Bow School District said plaintiffs Andrew Foote and Kyle Fellers chose to direct their protest against a 15-year-old transgender player on a visiting team, while they and another teen challenges a ban in New Hampshire in court.
“They did this despite explicit warnings that such behavior would not be tolerated on school grounds,” the district wrote. “The school rightly curtailed such behavior and disciplined the two men fairly.”
Del Kolde, a senior attorney at the Institute for Free Speech, said after Tuesday’s hearing that they had achieved some of what they sought. He said he believed police bodycam footage, likely to be played at the November hearing, would further support his client’s version of events.
The province declined to comment immediately after the hearing.
According to the lawsuit, school officials and a local police officer confronted the parents during the game and told them to remove the wristbands or leave. The prosecutors refused, citing their First Amendment rights, and then said they were threatened with arrest for trespassing.
At one point, the referee stopped the game and said Bow High School would lose if the plaintiffs did not remove their wristbands, the lawsuit said. The wristbands were removed and play resumed.
During Tuesday’s court hearing, Kolde acknowledged that Fellers had called school officials Nazis, but said he had the right to do so and that officials had retaliated against him.
Fellers also held up a handmade sign that read, “Protect female sports for female athletes,” the district said.
After the game, the two parents received “No Trespass Orders” banning them from school grounds and events, the lawsuit said. One was banned for a week, while Fellers was banned for the autumn term.
“Parents do not lose their First Amendment rights at the entrance to a school football field. We wore pink wristbands to silently support our daughters and their right to fair competition,” Fellers said in an earlier statement. “Rather than promoting open dialogue, school officials responded with threats and bans that directly impact our lives and the lives of our children.”