(LifeSiteNews) — A New Hampshire high school halted a girls soccer game last week and called the police after parents, who were dismayed about a female-identifying male playing on the opposing team, were found to be wearing pink wristbands as a means of silent, peaceful protest.
Two parents subsequently received a notice from the superintendent of schools banning them from attending their daughters’ future games, asserting that by distributing the pink wristbands, which carried the simple message, “XX” (referring to the two chromosomes indicating the female sex), had the effect of “intimidating, threatening, harassing, and discouraging” the boy playing on the opposing girls team.
A NO TRESPASS order from Superintendent Mary Kelley sent to parent Anthony Foote of Bow, New Hampshire, alleges that “prior to and during the soccer game,” he “brought and distributed pink armbands to parents and other attendees to protest the participation of a transgender female student on the other team.”
“You are hereby prohibited from entering the buildings, grounds, and property of the Bow School District, including but not limited to all school administrative office buildings, parking lots, and athletic fields, until further notice,” the terse notice declared.
“You are also prohibited from attending any Bow School District athletic or extra-curricular event, on or off school grounds.”
“My daughter’s playing in the homecoming game this weekend, and I’m banned until the 23rd,” Foote told the NHJournal. “I can’t watch her play in homecoming — which is ridiculous.”
Foote told the NHJournal that he doesn’t care about what Parker Tirrell, the male student playing on the rival team, wants to do with his life.
“What I do care about is that my daughter could be physically hurt, maybe not by Parker because he’s not the biggest kid on the field. But there’s a chance that next time will be different,” Foote said.
Gov. Chris Sununu had signed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act into law in July, making the Granite State the 26th state to keep males from participating in girls’ sports events.
However, U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty prevented the law from being enforced.
“Judge Landya McCafferty”s ruling has settled the question of allowing males to compete as girls for the moment … but the issue of free speech is not resolved,” NHJournal’s Michael Graham noted. “It’s possible the school’s treatment of these parents violates their First Amendment rights, or that the school district’s interpretation of what is ‘disruptive behavior’ could be viewed by a court as too expansive.”
Foote also said he’s concerned that social pressure may prevent a large number of parents from expressing their views about the matter of boys competing in girls’ sports.
“Bow is a very blue town, and the people who run things will defend any liberal issue. It’s hard to speak out. But I would say there’s a silent majority,” Foote said. “There are firemen, there are police officers, there are teachers from other towns. They don’t agree, but they have to think about their finances. They have to protect their families. They can’t say anything.”
Parental concerns about their daughters being injured by males playing on what not so long ago were “female only” sports teams are by no means unfounded.
In nearby Massachusetts earlier this year, a gender-confused male playing on a girls high school basketball team injured three female players, causing the remaining female teammates to fear for their safety.
The Daily Item reported that Collegiate Charter School of Lowell ended its February 8 game against the KIPP Academy girls basketball team after just 16 minutes due to the KIPP team’s inclusion of a male player reportedly six feet tall with facial hair.
Earlier this year, LifeSiteNews’ Calvin Freiburger explained:
Inclusion of gender-confused individuals in opposite-sex sports is promoted by leftists as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities.
There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winning women’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be fully negated by hormone suppression.
In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men (do) not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone therapy;” therefore, “the advantage to transwomen (biological men) afforded by the (International Olympic Committee) guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”