Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, announced on Thursday that transgender athletes will be banned from competing against women. The ban, which is the first in the nation, applies only to women’s sports, not co-ed competitions and is to take effect immediately.
“Nassau County will protect women and girls’ right to compete in sporting events in female leagues WITHOUT biological males bullying their way onto those teams,” Blakeman tweeted.
There was an immediate backlash from some who oppose such a ban. Attorney General Letitia James was among them.
“This executive order is transphobic and deeply dangerous. In New York, we have laws that protect our beautifully diverse communities from hate and discrimination of any and every kind, James said in a statement. “My office is charged with enforcing and upholding those laws, and we stand up to those who violate them and trespass on the rights of marginalized communities. We are reviewing our legal options.”
The ban will take place at more than 100 sites across the county, Newsday reported.
Lawmakers in Albany also had a strong reaction. Nassau-based Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti (D) attacked Blakeman for “issuing an unnecessary Executive Order to grab headlines that I fear could lead to a culture of hate towards transgender children.”
“Words matter. Far too often, hateful rhetoric leads to hateful action, as we just saw in Oklahoma, where a non-binary child was murdered… Hate knows no boundaries, as we’ve seen right here in my district, when children were targeted, it was so vile that it elicited a bipartisan condemnation. Directing vitriol toward children should not and can never be tolerated.”
David Kilmnick, New York LGBT New York president and founder, was “profoundly disappointed” by the actions of Blakeman.
“This discriminatory move not only undermines the principles of inclusivity and fairness but also perpetuates harmful stereotypes and exclusion,” Kilmnick said.
Supporters of the ban on transgender athletes on girls’ teams argue that transgender girls have an unfair advantage in high school sports and should be forced to play on boys’ teams.
In February 2020, the families of three cisgender girls filed a federal lawsuit against the Connecticut Association of Schools, the nonprofit Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and several boards of education in the state. Their argument was summarized in the Wall Street Journal by opinion writer Abigail Shrier who expressed their views as “when transgender girls compete on girls’ sports teams [cisgender] girls can’t win.”
