On October 18, 2025, the small city of Fairhope, Alabama, found itself thrust into the national spotlight after a protester’s arrest during one of the thousands of “No Kings” demonstrations sweeping the country. The protest movement, which reportedly drew some 7 million demonstrators to 2,700 events nationwide, was marked by its opposition to President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies. But in Fairhope, the story quickly shifted from the broader anti-Trump message to a heated debate over the boundaries of free expression and the role of law enforcement in policing public decency.
The incident at the heart of the controversy involved 61-year-old Jeana Renea Gamble, a local resident who attended the protest in downtown Fairhope dressed in an inflatable penis costume and holding a sign that read “No Dick-Tator.” According to AL.com and video footage shared widely online, Gamble’s arrest was swift and forceful. Police officers approached her near the Baldwin Square Shopping Center following complaints about traffic hazards. When an officer requested that she remove her costume, which was deemed “obscene in a public setting,” Gamble refused. Officers then took her to the ground by a busy road, handcuffed her, and dragged her to her feet as onlookers shouted protests and filmed the scene on their cellphones.
“This is a family town and I’m not gonna have somebody out here dressed like this,” one officer can be heard saying in the video, a statement that would soon echo through both local and national debates about the limits of protest and the meaning of community standards.
The Fairhope Police Department posted about the incident on Facebook, confirming that Gamble was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors. In a statement to local media, the department explained, “An officer observed an individual in a phallic costume near the Baldwin Square Shopping Center. The officer approached the woman and requested that she remove the costume, which is deemed obscene in a public setting; however, she refused to comply.”
Mayor Sherry Sullivan quickly weighed in, telling 1819 News, “This type of behavior or display is not acceptable and will not be tolerated in Fairhope. Protests should remain peaceful and free of profanity and obscene displays.” City Council President Jack Burrell echoed Sullivan’s stance, stating, “She resisted arrest and was wearing an outfit that is not appropriate in public.” Burrell further emphasized that Fairhope’s “community standards” do not support public displays like penis costumes, even during political protests, suggesting such attire might be more at home on Bourbon Street in New Orleans than in their city.
But the official response did little to quell the outrage. Instead, it sparked a fierce debate about the First Amendment and the role of law enforcement in regulating protest speech. Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), condemned the arrest, calling it “the kind of arrest that normally should result in the disciplinary action in those involved and a pledge to retrain the Police Department for violating someone’s First Amendment rights.”
Steinbaugh, referencing the landmark 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case Cohen v. California, noted that the Court had previously ruled in favor of a protester who wore a jacket emblazoned with the phrase “Fuck the Draft” inside a Los Angeles courthouse. The Court found that, absent some other offense, the state could not criminalize the public display of a single expletive. “There are very narrow exceptions to the First Amendment, and among them are obscenity,” Steinbaugh said. “But obscenity is something that is, in some sense, erotic. That is not this. It’s a political speech at a political demonstration. That context alone should sound alarm bells in that police department that you’re crossing some clear First Amendment lines here.”
Russell Weaver, a law professor at the University of Louisville, agreed, telling local reporters, “This is political speech, and it certainly doesn’t meet the definition of obscenity.” He pointed out that federal courts define obscenity based on whether the average person finds the material to lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value and whether it appeals to the “prurient interest” inciting lust or lasciviousness. “That’s not what’s going on here,” Weaver explained.
Indivisible Baldwin County, the group that organized Saturday’s protest, issued a statement strongly condemning the arrest. “People should not be subject to violent overreach by police just because they exercise their right to free speech in ways that are controversial or impolite. Speech, but only in ways the opponents of a message approve, is not free speech at all,” the group said. They described Gamble as peacefully expressing her views and called the arrest “indefensible, morally and legally.”
The timing of Gamble’s arrest could not have been more fraught for Fairhope. The city has been at the center of a contentious battle over book censorship and the definition of obscenity in its public library. Conservative activists, backed by the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS), have pushed for the relocation of books labeled “sexually explicit” from teen and youth sections to adult areas. In response to what it saw as non-compliance with these new guidelines, the APLS board froze approximately $42,000 in state funding to the Fairhope library earlier this year. Library officials have argued that the APLS definition is overly broad and could apply to virtually any book that mentions sexuality, regardless of context. They maintain that the challenged books do not meet the legal definition of obscenity and should remain accessible to young readers.
City leaders, including Mayor Sullivan and Council President Burrell, have largely supported the Fairhope Library Board in resisting efforts to move or ban books. Yet, with Gamble’s arrest, the city now finds itself accused of hypocrisy—defending free expression in the library while clamping down on it in the streets.
Gamble’s protest costume, which used a vulgar term to criticize President Trump as a “dictator,” was widely understood as a form of political satire. According to Breitbart News, the “No Kings” demonstrations included older activists under the banner “Grantifa,” with participants holding handmade signs and wearing shirts declaring themselves “Grandparents Against Fascism.” The protests drew funding from Democratic donors and anti-Israel groups, according to the same outlet, and were dismissed by President Trump himself as a “joke.”
As the dust settles in Fairhope, the debate over Gamble’s arrest continues to reverberate far beyond the city’s borders. For some, the incident is a cautionary tale about the dangers of letting “community standards” override constitutional rights. For others, it’s a matter of upholding public decency and protecting the sensibilities of families and children. But if there’s one thing both sides might agree on, it’s that the boundaries of free speech—and the responsibilities of those who police it—are anything but settled in America’s public squares.
