A New York county official filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the state Attorney General Letitia James after the AG threatened legal action against a county-level executive order banning transgender-identifying athletes from competing in certain sex-segregated sporting events.
The lawsuit, filed by Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman in the Eastern District of New York, is on behalf of Nassau County and local residents, including a 16-year-old female volleyball player identified in the suit as K.E.M. and her parents, Marc and Jeanine Mullen.
Signed in February 2024, the Executive Order “for Fairness for Women and Girls in Sports“ sought to provide women and girls “equal and fair opportunities” to succeed in their gender-segregated sporting events. To accomplish this, Blakeman ordered all sporting events at county-run facilities to prevent transgender-identifying girls from competing against biological females and mandated that all individuals participate in the category of their biological sex.
“To be clear,” the lawsuit reads, “the Executive Order does not impose a blanket prohibition on transgender individuals from participating in sporting events held at Nassau County facilities. In fact, the Executive Order invites transgender biological males to compete except in and leagues that advertise or identify as exclusively all-girls or all-women.”
On March 1, 2024, the New York AG James responded to the executive order by issuing a cease and desist threatening “additional legal action” if the order was not repealed within five business days. “The executive order discriminates against transgender women and girls simply for being who they are, and against teams that include transgender women and girls on their rosters, in clear violation of New York’s Civil and Human Rights Laws,” James’ office wrote in a press release announcing the cease and desist.
The County Executive further emphasized in response to the letter that “biological males who are transgender would have other opportunities to compete,” and shortly after, he filed the lawsuit seeking to block the state Attorney General from taking further legal action.
Included in the suit are several references to injuries or other incidents that have occurred on the court or field in which a transgender-identifying player caused severe bodily and emotional harm to a female competitor. “[J]ust last month it was reported that a girls basketball team went so far as to
forfeit a game because a transgender girl (i.e. biological male) injured three girls,” the lawsuit states. “[T]he coach felt compelled to terminate his team’s participation in order to prevent further injury to the biologically female athletes by the 6-foot-tall biologically male transgender player.”
The lawsuit argues that the Attorney General “incorrectly” accused the executive order of violating state anti-discrimination laws. “[T]he Executive Order lawfully levels the playing field and ensures safe and equal opportunities for biological girls and women to participate in the same way and numbers historically enjoyed by their male counterparts,” the lawsuit states in response to James’ claims.
This piece first appeared at TPUSA.
