Long Island ball derby group files a lawsuit over a transgender sports ban.

The first lawsuit brought by a Long Island roller derby group is against a Nassau County executive order that forbids transgender people from competing in women’s sports at more than 100 different county-owned locations.

Frizzy Day, the vice chairman of the Nassau County-based roller derby team Long Island Roller Rebels, is the plaintiff in this case.

In an interview with NBC New York, Day said, “It’s sending a message, ‘Yes, you’re not safe here, you don’t belong here,'” adding, “It makes me afraid to be on Long Island, that is the fact of it.”

The team first opened its doors in 2005 and has always welcomed people of all races, genders, and orientations, but due to this executive order, they will likely lose all of their practice space in Nassau county.

According to Blakeman’s order, any sports team, leagues, programs, or organizations that want a permit from the county’s parks and recreation department must “explicitly designate” whether they are male, female, or coed based on their members’ “biological sex at birth.”

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit now. The order, according to counsel Gabriella Larios, is a flagrant violation of New York State laws.

“Here you have an order that only applies to trans women and girls and it only applies to them because of their gender identity,” Larios said. That is very obviously prohibited by law.

According to the lawsuit, these organizations and the individuals who work in and run them will be forced to make intrusive inquiries about people’s gender identity, invade their privacy and physical autonomy, and “out” people as transgender in order to comply with the Order.

County Executive Bruce Blakeman pledges to fight the federal complaint against the state attorney general as well as the NYCLU lawsuit. He is sticking by his executive order. That was his response to Letitia James’ cease-and-desist order to lift the transgender restrictions.

Blakeman claims the order was inspired by trans athletes like Lia Thomas, the first University of Pennsylvania openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA division I title.

“Rather than choose to compete with other biological males or a co-ed team in Nassau county,” they say.

However, Day claims that the success of their roller derby team depends on belonging rather than on gaining a competitive advantage.

“Trans people are the nicest people on earth,” Day said when I played with them. “They just want to play sports.”