CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Two New Hampshire fathers who were banned from school district events for wearing pink wristbands marked with “XX” to represent female chromosomes insisted in a federal court hearing Thursday that they had no intention of intent to harass or otherwise target a transgender football player who played on the team.
However, the judge hearing the case suggested that the message the parents sent may matter more than their intentions.
Kyle Fellers and Anthony Foote are suing the Bow School District after they were banned from school grounds in September for wearing wristbands at their daughters’ soccer game in September. The restraining orders have since expired, but a judge is deciding whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to wear wristbands and carry signs at upcoming school events, including basketball games, swim meets and a music concert, while the case continues.
At Thursday’s hearing, both men said they did not see the bracelets as a protest against Parker Tirrell, a transgender girl on the opposing team, but rather as a show of support for their daughters and their teammates. U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe questioned whether there was a meaningful difference and whether their intentions mattered.
“Sometimes the message you think you’re sending may not be the message that’s being sent,” he said.
McAuliffe asked Foote if it occurred to him that a transgender person might interpret XX’s pink bracelets as an attempt to invalidate their existence.
“If she’s a trans woman, pink might be the color she likes,” Foote said.
McAuliffe also noted that while both plaintiffs said they had no problem with transgender people outside of sports, they repeatedly referred to the athlete in question as a boy.
“You seem to be trying to imply that there is no such thing as a transgirl,” McAuliffe said.
Foote disagreed, saying it’s “like learning a new language” to talk about transgender people.
In a separate courtroom Thursday, a different judge heard a lawsuit filed by Parker Tirrell and another student challenging a state law that bars transgender athletes in grades 5-12 from playing on teams that align with their gender identity. It requires schools to designate all teams as girls, boys or coeds, with eligibility determined based on students’ birth certificates “or other evidence.”
That federal judge ruled earlier this year that teenagers can try out and play on girls’ school sports teams. For now, the order only applies to these two individuals as they seek to overturn the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act on behalf of all transgender female students in New Hampshire.
Lawyers for the teenagers said in court Thursday that they hope the matter will go to trial and be resolved before the start of the next school year in September. They said the teenager’s school districts and others in the state have asked for guidance on the statute. State lawyers said they needed more time to prepare.
Judge Talesha Saint-Marc suggested the timing of the trial was ambitious and asked both sides to talk further about planning.
Gov. Chris Sununu, who signed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act into law in July, said it “ensures fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining the integrity and competitive balance of athletic competition.” About half of the states have adopted similar measures.
In the Bow case, school district officials said they acted appropriately when they disciplined parents for behavior they knew violated school policy at athletic events. They will explain their evidence on Friday. On Thursday, the plaintiffs’ attorney, Endel Kolde, accused the district of “dramatic” overreaching, arguing that the wristbands generally target transgender students, regardless of whether such students attended the events.
“This is opinion discrimination and it’s very clear that they are proud of it,” Kolde said.
Kolde initially conceded that the school district could restrict speech “to some extent” to protect children from harassment, but stopped short of agreeing with the judge’s contention that yelling “transgender students” at a particular player would be subject to such regulation.
“Could be,” he said.
“I’m trying to get you to admit the obvious,” McAuliffe said.
“It’s less than obvious to me,” Kolde said.
Feller, the first witness in the case involving the bracelets, said he bought them thinking his daughter and her teammates would wear them, but ended up getting one himself when they refused. After being told to leave the game, he stood in the parking lot with a sign that read “Protect Women’s Sports for Female Athletes.”
“I wanted to support women’s sport and I believed what was happening was a travesty,” he said.
Kathy McCormack and Holly Ramer, The Associated Press