Brandi Kruse Carried Out of Portland Thorns Game for Wearing a Pro-Women XX-XY Shirt

Brandi Kruse went to Providence Park on Friday night to cheer for women's soccer. She left it in the arms of stadium security, carried out of a Portland Thorns game for wearing a black T-shirt with the XX-XY Athletics logo, a brand built on one idea: women's sports are for women.

"In 2026, this is how women are treated for peacefully standing up for their rights," Kruse wrote on X after posting the video. "There was no way I was going to leave that stadium of my own free will. We did nothing wrong."

What the video shows

The two-minute clip, filmed by someone in Kruse's group, shows uniformed security staff holding Kruse by the arm and walking her through the concourse. "Are y'all arresting Brandi Kruse?" the person filming asks. "We're not arresting her," a staffer answers. Asked why they're restraining her, the staffer says: "Because she wouldn't walk."

Kruse doesn't fight and she doesn't yell. "I have not done anything wrong," she says, twice. Then she makes them do it the hard way: "Carry me out." Moments later: "I'm being carried down." Women in matching XX-XY shirts follow, shouting "Where is Brandi?" and calling for the Portland Police. "They're throwing Brandi Kruse out of the building by force," one says.

Kruse, a reporter and commentator who hosts the show *unDivided*, had announced the plan earlier in the night. "We are here in Portland to take a stand. Women are women. We cannot be erased," she wrote. "An @xx_xyathletics shirt is not hate speech." She later posted a photo of the group in the stands before anything happened: "Joyful. Peaceful. Proud!"

'We were assaulted by fans'

Kruse says the group was attacked before security ever showed up. "We peacefully wore our shirts. We were assaulted by fans. Then WE were forced to leave – with FORCE by stadium security," she wrote. Fans who went after the group, she said, were never removed.

Tara Faul, who says she grew up a female athlete, was thrown out too. "Just got forcibly kicked out of a Portland Thorns game because people were hitting my group with trans flags over our feminist shirts," she posted. Another member of the group, posting as @ApostateAri, said she was hit in the head with trans flags and punched in the face.

The worst of it, according to Kruse, happened to a woman named Julie. "Julie, a 57-year-old lesbian, was shoved down by a male @ThornsFC fan and tumbled over two rows of chairs. All for wearing an @xx_xyathletics shirt," Kruse wrote, adding that the man later apologized and that Julie has filed a police report. Kruse also says a security guard ripped a reporter's press pass off his chest in front of officers, mid-interview.

Kruse made a point of clearing the cops. "@PortlandPolice had nothing to do with removing us from the stadium," she wrote. "They arrived after. They are providing us some safety while fans leave. I am grateful." Amy Sousa, who was thrown out of a Thorns game in September, posted her own video: "Ejected from the thorns and abused by fans."

Which shirts are allowed

Hours before Kruse was carried out, XX-XY founder Jennifer Sey posted a photo from the same game: a woman by the field wearing a tank top that reads "Protect Trans Kids" over a drawing of a knife. Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has spent years fighting to keep men out of women's sports, saw it.

"It will never cease to amaze me that a shirt with male and female chromosomes is considered problematic, yet a shirt featuring a knife and a thinly veiled threat somehow isn't," Gaines wrote. XX-XY Athletics put it the same way: "Seems the only shirts not allowed in women's professional sports leagues today are ones that stand up for women." Sey, who wasn't at the game, asked simply: "How is this America??"

Not the first time in Portland

This is the second time in seven weeks the Thorns have thrown out women in XX-XY gear. On Sept. 6, eight fans, Sousa among them, were removed from Providence Park during the Thorns' match against the Washington Spirit, KATU reported. The club said the group was "distributing unapproved materials" in violation of its fan guidelines and that it was "reviewing the incident." The women disputed that account, and they were turned away from The Sports Bra, a women's sports bar, afterward too.

The NWSL's fan code bans political signs and symbols but gives no objective standard for what counts, OutKick reported, which leaves it to whoever is working security that night. Kruse also co-organized a July rally for WNBA guard Sophie Cunningham, where a Seattle Storm co-owner was later fined and suspended after berating teenage girls in XX-XY shirts.

Where the country stands

The fans in those shirts aren't on the fringe. They're in line with federal policy. President Trump signed the "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order on Feb. 5, 2025, calling male participation in women's sports "demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls." The next day, the NCAA limited women's competition to athletes born female.

On the field, the Thorns beat the North Carolina Courage 1-0 on a 60th-minute Marie Müller goal in front of 20,105 fans, clinching their 10th straight playoff berth, the AP reported. The club hadn't commented on the removals as of early Saturday.

Kruse's message to the league is the same one she brought through the gates. "We are being assaulted but will not be deterred," she wrote. Women are women, and a shirt that says so isn't hate.