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The authoritarian instinct is to control the flow of information, deciding what you’re allowed to weigh when making decisions that impact your life. We’ve seen this unfold dramatically over the past few years, with the White House pressuring social media companies and even retailers like Amazon to censor anything they deemed “harmful,” particularly around controversial COVID policies.
The left’s position boils down to this: Government knows best. Don’t ask questions. It’s fascism with a smiley face emoji slapped on it, and it’s quickly becoming a global threat to anyone in Western nations who dares to think independently — on topics ranging from vaccines to transgenderism to immigration.
But progressives aren’t content with simply controlling what news you’re allowed to consume. If you dare protest their actions, they’re ready to tag you with a “domestic threat” label and unleash law enforcement to shut you down.
Remember when the DOJ started investigating parents as potential terrorists for showing up at school board meetings and exercising their free speech? Parents across the country were understandably furious over the Alphabet agenda and critical race theory being pushed on their children using taxpayer money.
And now, leftist officials have expelled parents from school property for — checks notes —supporting women’s sports.
Welcome to Bow, New Hampshire. It may be a small town up north, but what’s happening there is a preview of the left’s next move on the national stage.
According to local reports, two fathers, Anthony Foote and Kyle Fellers, were rightly outraged that their high school daughters were expected to play in a soccer match against a biological male. Their concerns were valid due to the scientific reality that progressive activists refuse to acknowledge: There are stark biological differences between males and females, and that is especially evident — and consequential — in contact sports.
Ahead of the September 17 match, Bow High School’s leadership warned parents not to protest the presence of a 15-year-old boy on the opposing team. No “signs,” “references,” nothing. The school claimed, “This is a contest between high school student-athletes and should be treated as such.”
Anthony Foote wasn’t buying it. “You don’t let biological males — who are stronger, faster, and more physically dominant — compete against women,” he fumed. “And you definitely don’t sit around waiting for someone to get hurt before doing something about it.”
He’s got a legitimate point. We’ve seen incident after incident of girls getting seriously hurt going up against male athletes.
Look at neighboring Massachusetts, for instance. A six-foot-tall “trans” opponent, reportedly donning a beard, slammed a female basketball player to the ground with ease, injuring her in the process. In fact, the bearded bro injured three players overall, prompting the team to call it quits and forfeit the game.
Nonetheless, Bow High School’s administration, as Foote put it, “would rather be ‘woke’ than do what’s right.”
For some context, New Hampshire passed a law that prevents men from participating in women’s sports from fifth grade through high school. It’s clearly sensible legislation.
Well, not to an activist judge, who blocked the law and argued that it might violate the 14th Amendment — the one that guaranteed newly freed slaves equal protection under the law. Apparently, keeping dudes out of girls’ soccer now infringes upon that.
So, while the case snakes its way through the courts, Foote and Fellers decided to make their voices heard…sort of. Did they show up with placards and chants? Throw eggs? Burn down the field, BLM-style? Nope. They wore pink armbands with the letters XX on them, signifying female chromosomes.
As far as protests go, this was about as mild and peaceful as it gets.
Authoritarians, though, can’t stand dissent, even if it’s silent. Bow High School personnel halted the game, called in the police on the offending dads, and then banned both men from school property.
Why? Because their “protest” was apparently “designed to and had the effect of, intimidating, threatening, harassing, and discouraging” another student.
Seriously? They wore armbands. How menacing! But what about the girls on the team having to square off against a guy? Do their feelings of intimidation, fear, and harassment matter? Nope. Of course not.
Fellers received a “no-trespass” notice for the remainder of the fall season, forbidding him from entering any school property, including athletic fields. He’s now exploring legal recourse of his own, as he should.
And Foote? He was barred from watching his daughter play at the homecoming game last weekend.
District superintendent Marcy Kelley justified the ban because “prior to and during the soccer game, you brought and distributed pink armbands to protest the participation of a transgender female student on the other team.”
Her behavior highlights the progressive playbook: Step 1, control what’s considered an acceptable opinion — like pretending boys can be girls. Step 2, when that fails — and it will — weaponize the law against any ordinary American exercising their God-given right to speak up for truth.
The good news is that the district’s absurd reaction is backfiring. Now, people from all over New Hampshire are showing up at Bow soccer games wearing pink XX armbands. And that’s exactly how you handle petty tyrants like Marcy Kelley — when they try to silence you, you just get “louder.”
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