On Monday, a Long Island county legislation went into effect prohibiting transgender women and girls from participating in sports at facilities managed by the county for women and girls.
Attorney General Letitia James and the New York Civil Liberties Union, or NYCLU, filed separate lawsuits against the proposal on the same day, claiming that it breaches state anti-discrimination rules.
Bruce Blakeman, the county executive, signed the legislation on Monday after the Nassau County Legislature approved it last month by a party-line vote of 12 to 5.
Sporting organizations and leagues that wish to reserve athletic facilities or county-run parks are required by law to “expressly designate” as a men’s team, women’s team, or coed team based on the assigned sex of the team’s competitors at birth when requesting a permit to use county parks or facilities.
It forbids sports organizations that let transgender women play on women’s teams from receiving permits from the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation & Museums.
Nonetheless, the law gives the county the authority to authorize sports leagues that let transgender athletes play on men’s teams.
The ordinance is comparable to an executive order that Blakeman issued in February and that the women’s roller derby league, the Long Island Roller Rebels, contested.
In May, a New York judge overturned the order, stating that Blakeman lacked the jurisdiction to make the decision and that the county assembly would need to pass a legislation before she could make such an order.
The Long Island Roller Rebels are being represented by the NYCLU in a lawsuit filed on Monday.
The lawsuit claims that the new rule has an impact on about 100 county athletic facilities as well as a variety of sports teams and organizations, including recreational leagues and public and private school sports teams.
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“To gain equal access to facilities pursuant to the Local Law, these groups — and the people who participate in and run them — will be forced to make invasive inquiries about people’s gender identity, intrude upon their privacy and bodily autonomy, and ‘out’ people as transgender,” the lawsuit claims.
The president of the Long Island Roller Rebels, Curly Fry, stated that county legislators are attempting to both “send the message that trans people do not belong in Nassau County” and deprive them the advantages of participating in sports.
In her lawsuit, Attorney General Letitia James makes similar claims to those made by the NYCLU, namely that the statute infringes upon state laws against discrimination.
“With this law, Nassau County is once again attempting to exclude transgender girls and women from participating in sporting events while claiming to support fairness,” James stated. “NYCLU and the Long Island Roller Rebels won their first lawsuit and County Executive Blakeman’s transphobic executive order was struck down because it was blatantly illegal. Now this discriminatory law must be as well. Here in New York, every person has the right to be exactly who they are free from discrimination, and my office will always protect that right.”
