New York Times: Transgender participation in women’s sports has been restricted in 24 states. Now, by executive order, it has been banned at more than 100 facilities in Nassau County, on Long Island.
Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive and a Republican, signed an executive order barring girls’ and women’s teams that include transgender athletes from using county facilities. It was the latest effort in a nationwide push to limit transgender athletes from competing.
The order, which did not require the approval of the County Legislature, took effect immediately. It was not immediately clear whether Blakeman’s action was legal under the state’s human rights law.
His office said the ban would affect thousands of teams across all levels. Last year, the Big East Conference, which has 11 member universities, held its swimming championship in Nassau County. The Big East did not respond to a request for comment on the ban.
The reaction was immediate. Bobby Hodgson, the director of L.G.B.T.Q. Rights Litigation at the New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that Blakeman’s order was illegal and that the organization would “consider all options to stop it.”
Jami Taylor, a political science professor at the University of Toledo and an expert on L.G.B.T. politics, told my colleague Claire Fahy that Blakeman had ignored both state law and a Supreme Court ruling, a 1977 case that allowed Renée Richards (1934-) to compete in the women’s draw at the U.S. Open. Richards, now 89, was one of the first openly transgender athletes in professional sports.
Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti, a Democrat who represents parts of Nassau County, said that Blakeman had issued the order to score political points. Blakeman was elected in 2021 after campaigning against mask mandates, which had angered some suburban parents and businesses during the pandemic. He also focused on crime and bail reform.
Blakeman, who signed the order at a news conference, referred to transgender girls who competed on women’s teams outside New York, saying that he wanted to “get ahead of the curve here in Nassau County.” The order does not restrict transgender boys and men from competing on boys’ and men’s teams.
When he was asked how many transgender athletes compete in Nassau County, he said he did not know. He also said, without citing a source, that fewer than 1 percent of the county’s residents identify as transgender and that he was not sure how many, if any, competed at county facilities.
Juli Grey-Owens, the executive director of Gender Equality New York, a group that took part in a protest outside the building where Blakeman’s news conference took place, said there were about 17,000 transgender people in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, which have a combined population of about 2.9 million.
She said the question was how many transgender athletes were even involved in local women’s and girls’ sports.
“Every time that question is asked, they come back with no answer,” she said, referring to proponents of bans like Blakeman’s, “because they have a solution looking for a problem.”
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