Nassau County, NY, executive announces ban on transgender athletes

NEW YORK — Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced Thursday that transgender athletes are no longer allowed to compete in sports aligned with their gender identity at county-run facilities.

Blakeman, a Republican, said the executive order prohibits organizations with trans athletes in their teams “from playing at any of our 100 county facilities.”

The order is the first of its kind enacted by a local government, according to Blakeman, who announced it Thursday morning at a ceremony in Mineola.

According to the order, which did not have to pass the legislature and took effect immediately, “any sports, leagues, organizations, teams, programs, or sports entities” must assign athletes to one of three categories based on their gender assigned at birth when applying for a permit to use Nassau County Parks property.

The categories are “males, men, or boys,” “females, women, or girls” or “coed or mixed, including both males and females,” which excludes transgender athletes.

The ban appears to be a blatant violation of New York State anti-bias laws, which bar discrimination from public accommodations on the basis of “gender identity or expression.”

Attorney General Letitia James said her office is “reviewing (its) legal options,” calling the order “transphobic and deeply dangerous.”

“My office is charged with enforcing and upholding (anti-discrimination) laws, and we stand up to those who violate them and trespass on the rights of marginalized communities,” she said.

Blakeman’s announcement was also slammed by LGBTQ and legal rights advocates who vowed to fight back against the county executive’s “illegal” and “cynical” executive order.

“We will consider all options to stop it,” Bobby Hodgson, director of LGBTQ rights litigation with the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), told The News in an email.

The order is just an “attempt to shut trans people out of public spaces,” Hodgson said. “Requiring girls who are trans to compete on boys’ teams effectively bars them from sports altogether,” he added.

Dr. David Kilmnick, president and founder of the New York LGBT Network, a family of nonprofits serving the LGBTQ community of Long Island and Queens, said the “discriminatory move not only undermines the principles of inclusivity and fairness but also perpetuates harmful stereotypes and exclusion.”

Additionally, the order is “fundamentally flawed,” he said, noting New York state law “explicitly protects the rights of transgender individuals, ensuring their equal participation in all aspects of life, including sports.”

On Thursday, when signing his fifth executive order since taking office in January 2022, Blakeman maintained the order was not discriminatory, but simply a matter of fairness.

“It is an unfair advantage for (a trans girl or woman) to compete against (a cisgender girl or woman), he said in a speech filled with terms widely considered offensive to trans people, while surrounded by elementary school students holding pink signs that read “Protect women’s sports.”

“I view it as a form of bullying and it will not be tolerated,” he added.

Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti, a Democrat who represents parts of Nassau County, said Blakeman was not issuing the order to protect anyone, but instead to “grab headlines” that could lead to a “culture of hate towards transgender children.”

“Directing vitriol toward children should not and can never be tolerated,” she said in a statement to The News.

Nassau County Legislature’s Democratic Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton criticized the county executive for “legislating little leagues” with the order.

Instead of giving Nassau County residents “falsely promised tax cuts and a fairer property assessment system,” Blakeman has instead been more interested in “self-promotion by spending public money on private golf outings, swanky galas, and unrelated press conferences” — such as the one announcing today’s transgender sports ban, “which has nothing to do with his responsibilities.”

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