Sports organizations that allow transgender girls to compete on girls’ teams can’t use Nassau County athletic facilities, County Executive Bruce Blakeman said Thursday.
Blakeman, a Republican, said his executive order goes into effect immediately at more than 100 sites, including basketball courts, swimming pools and ballfields. It requires organizations applying for a permit to “expressly designate” whether they are male, female or coed based on their members’ “biological sex at birth.”
Blakeman said he had not heard of specific examples of transgender girls attempting to compete in women’s sports in Nassau. Hundreds of women’s sports teams use Nassau’s facilities annually, said Blakeman spokesman Chris Boyle. The order does not apply to sports teams that allow those who were born female to play on male teams.
Boyle said the order will be enforced by the county’s parks department, which issues the permits. It does not require approval by the county legislature.
Blakeman’s announcement, made at a press conference at the legislative building in Mineola, mirrors other attempts across the country to limit transgender athletes’ participation in school sports. Legislation in multiple states has prompted litigation in recent years. In April, the Republican-led U.S. House passed a bill similar to the state laws.
Blakeman’s order drew an immediate rebuke from LGBTQ leaders who questioned its legality and said it could lead to further discrimination. Protesters outside the building shouted, “Trans children are our children.”
“Nassau County’s cynical executive order is illegal and we will consider all options to stop it,” Bobby Hodgson, director of LGBTQ rights litigation for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “In the wake of growing attacks against LGBTQ+ rights nationwide, we must defend trans people’s rights, uphold New York law, and ensure their equal participation in all aspects of life, including sports.”
Other critics said the order has little to do the role of county executive, a job typically associated with overseeing nonpartisan services like snow plowing and property taxes.
“Nassau County residents were falsely promised tax cuts and a fairer property assessment system from this county executive,” Legislative Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) said in a statement. “Legislating little leagues … has nothing to do with his responsibilities.”
Blakeman denied he was trying to score political points.
“This isn’t a partisan issue,” he said. “This is a common-sense issue.”
Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
