A federal judge in New Hampshire says two dads who oppose allowing transgender athletes to play high school sports won’t be allowed to wear pink wristbands marked “XX” to games while their lawsuit against the school district continues.

Kyle Fellers and Anthony Foote were banned from school grounds in Bow after wearing the wristbands to a soccer game in September that included a transgender girl on the opposing team. They later sued the school district, and while the no-trespass orders have since expired, they asked the judge to allow them to carry signs and wear the wristbands featuring the symbol for female chromosomes at school events while the case proceeds.

Both men testified at a hearing in November that they didn’t intend to harass or otherwise target transgender athlete Parker Tirrell, and their attorneys argued they did nothing more than silently express their support for reserving girls’ sports for those assigned female at birth.

But in denying their motion Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe said the parents’ “narrow, plausibly inoffensive” intentions weren’t as important as the wider context, and that adults attending a high school athletic event do not enjoy a First Amendment protected right to convey messages that demean, harass or harm students.

  • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
    12·
    22 hours ago

    adults attending a high school athletic event do not enjoy a First Amendment protected right to convey messages that demean, harass or harm students.

    This is poorly phrased. They do enjoy the First Amendment right to express dissent to the trans athlete’s inclusion, even if it is demeaning. However, the state has the right to hold time, place, and manner restrictions on First Amendment protected conduct. School soccer games are not a traditional forum for protest, and schools have pretty wide ranging power to limit expression that counters the normal functioning of the school including sporting events, as well as the ability to restrict participation in and attendance of school sponsored events for misconduct. They can’t be arrested for expressing themselves as they did, especially not for harassment. But they can be trespassed.

    • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      32·
      16 hours ago

      It’s legal to own pornography. It’s not legal to show up to a middle school sporting event with a 3’x6’ poster of a money shot, unfurl it, and hold it high for all to see.

      • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
        4·
        16 hours ago

        This is a false equivalence as it’s equally illegal to distribute porn to children anyway, and to do the same thing on a public street during an otherwise legal protest. Public Indecency laws come into play then, which has nothing to do with what these guys were doing.