Blakeman’s Bill: Ban Transgender Women from Girls’ and Women’s Sports on Nassau Property

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman on Friday introduced legislation to ban transgender women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports on county properties, weeks after a judge overturned his executive order that would have had the same effect.

Blakeman, a Republican, wants to stop the county parks department from issuing permits for sporting events that allow “athletic teams or sports designated for women, women or girls to include biological males as competitors.”

Men’s or men’s events may include transgender male athletes, in accordance with legislation.

The bill proposes a new section of the county administrative code, Title 90, which regulates “Fairness for Women and Girls in Sports.”

The bill marks Blakeman’s second attempt to prevent transgender women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports at more than 100 soccer fields, swimming pools, basketball courts and other locations across the county. Blakeman argues that transgender girls and women hold an unfair competitive advantage.

Opponents of the measure say the law is discriminatory and violates state and federal human rights laws.

On May 11, State Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano vacated the executive order, saying Blakeman went “beyond the scope of his authority.” Ricigliano, a Republican, said there was no “corresponding legislative enactment” that gave Blakeman the authority to issue his order. The county is attractive.

Ricigliano’s decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Long Island Roller Rebels, a women’s flat-track roller derby team. They argued the order violated the state Human Rights Act and Civil Rights Act, as well as state Department of Education guidance.

Gabriella Larios, staff attorney for the NYCLU, said in a statement Friday: “It is abundantly clear that any attempt to ban transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports is prohibited under our state’s anti-discrimination law. It was true when we successfully overturned County Executive Blakeman’s transphobic policies and it’s true now.”

Blakeman’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

The New York State Supreme Court affirmed transgender rights in 1977 when it granted Renee Richards, a transgender athlete, the right to compete with other women in the U.S. Open, said Jami Taylor, a political science professor at the University of Toledo in Ohio.

Taylor said Blakeman will likely fail in his effort to regulate gender in sports in New York.

“He’s on the wrong battlefield,” she told Newsday. “The State Supreme Court in the 1970s already addressed transgender people in athletics in accordance with the state’s nondiscrimination policy.”