A 62-year-old Alabama grandmother is headed to trial after police tackled and arrested her at a No Kings protest for wearing an inflatable penis costume and carrying a “No Dick Tator” sign. Apparently, the authorities in Fairhope have decided the real threat to public order is a joke everyone understood.
“Featuring armholes, a sheer face panel, and an internal fan that keeps things erect,” a description on its website reads, “this costume is a guaranteed hit.”
Gamble was just shy of her 62nd birthday when she joined the October 18 No Kings rally in Fairhope, a small city on Alabama’s Gulf Coast. Organized by the local Indivisible chapter, which launched in 2025, the rally attracted some 1,000 people in deep-red Baldwin County, a mostly white, largely rural stretch of the state and one of President Donald Trump’s most stalwart bases of support.
The turnout exceeded organizers’ expectations. It also flew in the face of neighbors and critics who might dismiss protesters as paid agitators. “When you show your face to people that probably see you around town and know you live here, it combats the narrative of, like, [George] Soros busing us in,” said Kayleigh Rae, who founded Indivisible Baldwin County.
The case is ridiculous on its face, but that’s what makes it useful to people in power: it turns a harmless act of mockery into a warning shot. Don’t embarrass us in public, don’t make dissent funny, and definitely don’t test whether the First Amendment still applies when the joke lands too well.
Sweet Home Alabama
Home to some of the most ridiculous, reactive laws ever passed, and much, much later revoked. I'm sure this one is covered by some public decency statute.