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The Nassau County bill was signed into law on Monday, July 15.
Introduced by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman — whose February executive order with the same goals prompted backlash and was quickly struck down — the bill requires sports teams to designate whether they are a female, male, or co-ed team and prevents “biological males” from competing on women’s teams at the more than 100 county-run athletic facilities.
Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner publicly backed the bill, which the Republican-majority legislature passed in a 12-6 vote on Monday, June 24.
“We’re taking Nassau County to court - again - for their anti-trans sports ban,” the NYCLU wrote in a Facebook post.
“It’s abundantly clear that any attempt to ban transgender women and girls from sports is prohibited by New York’s anti-discrimination laws. It was true when we successfully struck down Nassau County Executive Blakeman’s transphobic policy, and it’s true now.”
James similarly made a post to Facebook confirming that her office was teaming with the NYCLU to sue the county, calling the law “transphobic and discriminatory."
The Attorney General and NYCLU were also outspoken critics of Blakeman’s controversial February ban, with the former issuing a cease-and-desist while the latter filed a lawsuit.
When announcing the executive order, he likened allowing transgender women in women’s sports to “bullying,” saying, “It’s a situation of fairness…it is an unfair advantage for someone who is a biological male to compete against a biological female."
The Nassau County Supreme Court struck down the executive order in May, claiming Blakeman did not have the authority to issue it. He introduced the bill shortly thereafter.
Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, the Nassau County Democratic Minority Leader, called the new legislation “deeply troubling” in a statement.
“If Republicans are genuinely serious about lowering the political temperature,” she said, “they should stop bullying and pushing legislation that scapegoats groups of people for their political gain.
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