NY leaders knock Nassau County restrictions on transgender girls in sports

The recent restriction on school teams with transgender girl athletes using Nassau County-owned facilities drew criticism from around New York, with some officials saying it was a discriminatory dive into a political maelstrom.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman “wants to step into the middle of the LGBTQ wars,” said Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a Democrat whose county of nearly a million sits just north of New York City. Latimer and fellow Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman are locked in a primary battle to run for the 16th Congressional District in November.

Blakeman, a Republican who leads a county east of NYC with a population of near 1.4 million, issued a Feb. 22 executive order that mandates any sports team hoping to use county facilities expressly designate that a team is male, female or co-ed. Nassau would decline to issue a permit for the use of facilities by a team designated for girls and women but that has participants deemed “biological males,” or people who had been identified as male at birth.

The Nassau order, however, explicitly says it’s OK for a boys team to have members who were identified female at birth.

Detroit Pistons forward Reggie Bullock rides atop the NBA’s float in June’s New York City LGBT Pride March. Bullock’s transgender sister, Mia Henderson, was murdered in 2014.

‘Prejudicial to satisfy their political beliefs’

Blakeman’s order said the designation “is necessary to maintain fairness for women’s athletic opportunities.”

Latimer said schools and local sports associations already determine who’s fit to compete. He called Nassau’s order “ridiculous.”

“They’re prepared to be prejudicial to satisfy their political beliefs,” Latimer said of government leaders, like Blakeman, who weigh in on an issue Latimer believes is beyond a municipal leader’s purview.

“I’m not running a government to fight culture wars,” Latimer said. “I’m running a government to provide services.”

Nassau County Executive, Bruce Blakeman speaks during a press conference on September 21, 2023.

Small group, big focus

The Nassau move echoes a wave of restrictions on transgender youth in other states. Half of states now restrict transgender student athlete participation in some way.

A Pew Research survey found that 1.6% of U.S. adults identify as transgender or nonbinary — that is, their gender differs from the sex they were assigned at birth or they do not exclusively identify as one gender. That includes about 300,000 youth nationwide ages 13-17, according to the UCLA Williams Institute.

USA Today: Why the largest transgender survey ever could be a powerful rebuke to myths, misinformation

The benefit of sport among youth has been touted as boosting physical and emotional health, as well as academic performance, according to President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.

Meanwhile, 60% of trans teens said they faced mistreatment at school, according to the 2022 Trans Survey. Some 73% of LGBTQ youth experience anxiety and 58% report symptoms of depression, according to a recent study by the Trevor Project.

What NY law says

New York State Attorney General Leticia James said the Nassau County order contradicts state law. She said in a statement on Feb. 22 that her office was reviewing legal options.

New York State’s Human Rights Law in 2019 added an act known as GENDA, or Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, which extends discrimination laws to include gender identity and gender expression as protected classes. Discrimination in New York is prohibited in all areas covered by the Human Rights Law, including employment, housing, non-religious schools and places of public accommodation, which would include municipally owned properties.

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks to the media, Nov. 6, 2023, in New York.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association outlines guidance that ensures all student-athletes have the right to participate in sports.

The New York Civil Liberties Union called the Nassau order illegal. “Requiring girls who are trans to compete on boys’ teams effectively bars them from sports altogether,” said Bobby Hodgson, NYCLU director of LGBTQ rights litigation. “Participating would mean being outed and being denied the same opportunities other girls enjoy: to challenge themselves, improve fitness, and be part of a team of their peers.”

Well before GENDA, New York courts had settled the issue of trans athletes’ right to compete in their identified gender. In 1977, the state Supreme Court found the U.S. Open’s attempt to ban tennis player Renee Richards from competing to be “grossly unfair, discriminatory and inequitable.”

Richards won the right to compete in the women’s singles but lost in both the singles and doubles competition.

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy for lohud.com and the USA Today Network New York. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her at @nancyrockland on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Threads.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Transgender girls sports restrictions in Nassau County rare in NY