New York county passes law to restrict trans girls and women from sports venues
New York's Nassau County passed a law banning women's and girls' sports teams from using facilities unless they exclude transgender women and girls from playing.
The legislature of New York’s Nassau County passed a law on Monday to ban women’s and girl’s sports teams from using sports facilities in the county on Long Island unless they exclude transgender girls and women from playing.
The law was virtually identical to a thwarted order issued by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, in February, which was immediately challenged by New York’s attorney general and a local women’s roller-derby team for violating a state ban on discrimination against people based on their sex or gender identity.
Blakeman’s order, which he said was needed to allow cisgender girls and women the fairest chance to win sporting events, was thrown out by a New York court, which ruled last month that only the county legislature had the power to make such a change.
Members of New York's Long Island Roller Rebels take a break during practice at the United Skates of America Roller Skating facility in Massapequa, N.Y., on March 19, 2024.Shannon Stapleton / Reuters fileUnder the new law, which Blakeman is expected to sign, if an organizer of girls’ or women’s sports wishes to book a county-run park or athletics facility, they must ask each member of the teams involved what sex was marked on their original birth certificate, and expel any teammates who were not designated female.
The restrictions do not apply to boys’ and men’s teams, nor to mixed teams not segregated by sex in Nassau County, a largely suburban chunk of Long Island east of New York City.
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