Trans-Inclusive Teams Banned from Nassau Sports Facilities
Nassau County lawmakers reinstate policy prohibiting transgender athletes on female sports teams from using county facilities.
On Monday, the Nassau County Legislature approved a measure reinstating a ban prohibiting female-designated sports teams with transgender members from using county-owned athletic facilities.
The measure now heads to Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman for his signature into law.
Blakeman previously attempted to issue an executive order instituting the ban in March, but a state judge overturned that order two months later.
In that May ruling, Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano said Blakeman had overstepped his authority in issuing the order, usurping powers delegated to the county legislature.
Monday’s vote was a response to that ruling. The 12 Republicans in the 19-person legislature voted to reimplement the ban, while 5 Democrats opposed it. Two other Democrats were absent from the vote.
“I am gratified that the Republican Majority in the legislature voted in favor of this common-sense measure to protect the integrity of women’s sports and the safety of women participants,” Blakeman said in a statement.
Under the newly-approved law, sports leagues or organizations — for any age group — that apply for permits to use county parks department facilities must designate their teams as male, female, or co-ed, based on members’ assigned sex at birth.
Those designated expressly for female athletes will not be permitted to use facilities if they have any transgender female participants.
There is no similar restriction on male- or coed-designated teams with transgender male members.
Advocates of the policy denied it was a ban, with Republican Legislator John Ferretti, Jr., arguing that transgender women could still compete in sports, just in men’s or co-ed leagues.
Transgender advocates filled the public seating area at Monday’s legislative meeting, offering testimony against the bill and holding up pink and purple signs reading “Trans women are women.”
The public comment period lasted over an hour, with no Nassau County residents testifying in support of the ban. According to CNN, following the legislation’s passage, audience members responded with chants of “Shame! Shame! Shame!”
Victoria LaGreca, a Nassau County lawyer, was called upon to defend the bill in front of the legislature, taking direct aim at New York’s Human Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
LaGreca maintained that the law’s protections for transgender people are “diametrically opposed to federal law to protect women,” referring to Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding.
LaGreca also listed four examples of cases in which transgender athletes’ participation had harmed the ability of cisgender female athletes to succeed, although none had taken place in Nassau County, reports The New York Times.
Susan Gottehrer, the director of the Nassau County chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union — who also testified against the bill — warned legislators prior to the vote that approving the ban would likely trigger a lawsuit, noting that Nassau County had spent $55 million defending itself from lawsuits over a four-year period from 2015 to 2019.
Following the vote, the NYCLU responded with a statement: “This is a hateful and blatantly illegal bill. If signed into law, we’ll see Nassau in court — again.”
The ban may be more popular among the wider public. In a Siena College poll released in April, 66% of New York voters said they believed high school athletes should be required to compete on sports teams designated for their assigned sex at birth.
Proponents of the ban have argued that there are significant biological differences between athletes assigned male at birth and those assigned female at birth following puberty, with those assigned male retaining physiological and competitive advantages.
Trans celebrity and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, who has vocally supported Blakeman’s attempt to bar trans women from female sports teams, has pointed to those differences as justification for restrictions on transgender competitors.
But a study released in April, funded by the International Olympic Committee, found that transgender females did not necessarily have as dominant a physical advantage over cisgender athletes as some might assume.
For instance, the study found that transgender female athletes demonstrated greater handgrip strength — an indicator of overall muscle strength — but had lower jumping ability, lung function, and relative cardiovascular fitness, compared to cisgender female athletes.
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