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On Thursday, Feb. 22, just hours after Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed his executive order, Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office would look into the next steps to protect transgender athletes from the ban, which she called “dangerous.”
“This executive order is transphobic,” she said in a statement.
“In New York, we have laws that protect our beautifully diverse communities from hate and discrimination of any and every kind...We are reviewing our legal options.”
The executive order, effective immediately, prohibits transgender women from participating in female competitive sports at county-run facilities. The ban does not apply to co-ed sports or male sports.
“It’s a situation of fairness…it is an unfair advantage for someone who is a biological male to compete against a biological female," Blakeman said at a press conference announcing the order. He likened the participation of transgender women in women’s sports to “bullying.”
At the order’s announcement, Blakeman was joined by District 18 Legislator Samantha Goetz and Kim Russell, a former women's lacrosse coach at Ohio's Oberlin College who said she was terminated after speaking out against transgender athletes participating in women's sports.
New York LGBT Network President Dr. David Kilmnick similarly denounced the move, saying in a statement that it “not only undermines the principles of inclusivity and fairness but also perpetuates harmful stereotypes and exclusion.”
This continues to be a developing story.
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