State Attorney General Letitia James filed suit Monday to block a newly-signed Nassau County law that bans transgender athletes from participating in women and girls sports at county-owned athletic facilities.
The AG’s office filed the suit moments after Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed the transgender ban legislation — passed by the local Republican-led legislature last month — into law.
Republican Blakeman initially sought to initiate the prohibition on biological males identifying as females from participating in women’s sports via executive order — but the edict was tossed out in court following a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels.
Democrat James is joining the legal fight in round 2 against the transgender ban, joining the NYCLU, which filed a separate suit challenging the law in Nassau County Supreme Court.
During a press conference Monday, Blakeman said it’s unfair for trans women and girls to compete against biological females, given scientific evidence that biological males on the whole are stronger, bigger and faster than women.
“We’re protecting the integrity, fairness and safety in women’s sports. It’s a matter of common sense,” he said.
He also noted that one of the world’s most famous transgender persons — Caitlyn Jenner — backs the ban.
The former athlete, né Bruce Jenner, won the 1976 gold medal for the decathlon and famously appeared on the cover of the Wheaties cereal box.
“She stood here with us and said, `You’re doing the right thing,’” Blakeman said of Jenner.
But James claimed the Nassau ban violates New York laws forbidding discrimination based on a resident’s gender identity or expression.
“With this law, Nassau County is once again attempting to exclude transgender girls and women from participating in sporting events while claiming to support fairness,” James said in a statement accompanying the lawsuit.
“NYCLU and the Long Island Roller Rebels won their first lawsuit and County Executive Blakeman’s transphobic executive order was struck down because it was blatantly illegal. Now this discriminatory law must be as well,” she said. “Here in New York, every person has the right to be exactly who they are free from discrimination, and my office will always protect that right.”
NYCLU staff attorney Gabriella Lario said Nassau County’s “relentless efforts to shut transgender women and girls out of sports will leave a lasting stain” on elected officials.
“It is abundantly clear that any attempt to ban trans women and girls from sports is prohibited by our state’s anti-discrimination laws. It was true when we successfully struck down County Executive Blakeman’s transphobic policy and it is true now. This latest round of hateful legislation is unacceptable and we won’t let it stand in New York,” Lario said in announcing the group’s own lawsuit against the ban.
The legal fight in Nassau is a microcosm of the debate over transgender athletes competing against women playing out across the country — with conservatives backing bans and liberals opposing them.
Blakeman said Monday he hasn’t heard any opposition on the ground from the LGBT community in Nassau. He said he has heard specifically from lesbian athletes who support the ban.
“There are a few people out there with a narrow view who say this is an anti-transgender bill — and it’s not,” he said.
A Siena College poll released in April found that 66% of voters in New York support a ban on transgender athletes competing against girls, while only 27% of respondents opposed “requiring high school athletes to only compete with others of the same sex that they were assigned at birth.”
Strong support for a prohibition crossed party, racial, ethnic and regional lines. Only voters who identified themselves as “liberal” opposed the ban.
