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Federal judge rules that parents are not allowed to wear wristbands to protest transgender athletes

April 16, 2025 | | Print Article

A federal judge has ruled against several New Hampshire parents who tried to protest against “transgender” athletes playing against their girls.

The parents — Kyle Fellers, Anthony Foote, Nicole Foote, and Eldon Rash — held a silent protest during a Sept. 17th girls soccer match between Bow High School and Plymouth Regional High School to protest the inclusion of a trans player, Parker Tirrell, in the game.

The protest involved wearing pink-colored “XX” wristbands depicting the chromosomes of a female human.

Below is an image of the wristband:

The protest led to Bow School District Superintendent Marcy Kelley issuing a notice of trespass against the parents, effectively barring them from attending their kids’ school soccer games.

In response, the parents sued.

“Parents don’t shed their First Amendment rights at the entrance to a school’s soccer field,” Fellers said in a statement after the suit was filed. “We wore pink wristbands to silently support our daughters and their right to fair competition.”

“Instead of fostering open dialogue, school officials responded with threats and bans that have a direct impact on our lives and our children’s lives. And this fight isn’t just about sports—it’s about protecting our fundamental right to free speech,” he added.

The parents were represented by the Institute for Free Speech (IFS):

On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe ruled against the parents, arguing that their First Amendment rights weren’t violated because school sports events are “limited public forums,” according to the New Hampshire Journal.

“The question then becomes whether the School District can manage its athletic events and its athletic fields and facilities — that is, its limited public forum — in a manner that protects its students from adult speech that can reasonably be seen to target a specific student participating in the event (as well as other similar gender-identifying students) by invited adult spectators, when that speech demeans, harasses, intimidates, and bullies,” McAuliffe’s ruling reads.

“The answer is straightforward: Of course it can. Indeed, school authorities are obligated to do so,” it continues.

McAuliffe also argued that the “XX” wristbands were an “assault” on transgender students like Tirrell.

“The message generally ascribed to the XX symbol, in a context such as that presented here, can reasonably be understood as directly assaulting those who identify as transgender women,” he ruled.

“Because gender identities are characteristics of personal identity that are ‘unalterable or otherwise deeply rooted,’ the demeaning of which ‘strikes a person at the core of his being,’ and because Bow school authorities reasonably interpreted the symbols used by plaintiffs, in context, as conveying a demeaning and harassing message, they properly interceded to protect students from injuries likely to be suffered,” he added.

Despite the ruling, Anthony Foote, one of the parents, plans to keep fighting.

“What was our offense? Supporting girls’ sports and defending biological reality?” he asked the Journal. “This ruling is a slap in the face to every parent who believes schools should be a place of fairness, not political indoctrination.”

“The judge openly admitted that Pride flags are allowed because they promote ‘inclusion,’ but wristbands defending women’s sports are banned because they might ‘offend’ someone. That’s viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple — and it’s unconstitutional,” he added.

Senior attorney Del Kolde, meanwhile, said he is still considering his next steps in this case.

“We strongly disagree with the Court’s opinion issued today denying our request for a preliminary injunction,” he said in a statement. “This was adult speech in a limited public forum, which enjoys greater First Amendment protection than student speech in the classroom.”

“Bow School District officials were obviously discriminating based on viewpoint because they perceived the XX wristbands to be ‘trans-exclusionary.’ We are still evaluating our options for next steps,” Kolde added.

Vivek Saxena
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