Judge rules in favor of Letitia James in blocking county transgender athlete ban

A federal judge on Thursday upheld New York Attorney General Letitia James’s challenge of a so-called ban on transgender athletes in Nassau County. The ruling comes after an earlier executive order from County Executive Bruce Blakeman that required participants to play on teams based on an individual’s birth sex, not gender identity.

Blakeman’s executive order, which went into effect last month, required all players on sports teams to submit their original biological sex at birth should they compete in county facilities and parks. According to Blakeman, the order was meant to prevent “the bullying of women and girls by transgender males who have many outlets to compete without putting the safety and security of females in danger.”

However, James challenged the order, issuing a cease-and-desist letter to Blakeman that threatened “decisive legal action” should Blakeman not rescind the order. When Blakeman sued to block the cease-and-desist order, Eastern District of New York Judge Nusrat Jahan Choudhury ruled in James’s favor, allowing her office to continue in its legal attempt to repeal the order.

According to Choudhury, Blakeman failed to prove that biological women “face an imminent threat of physical injury, discrimination, or exclusion from recognition, accolades, or college scholarships, or any other long-term benefit from any current or future athletic activities on Nassau County Parks property.” Choudhury was skeptical that there was any evidence that the Nassau County executive could produce that would support his claim that James’s cease-and-desist letter “violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to James and Blakeman for comment.

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Blakeman is also facing a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels, a team in the city’s female roller derby league. The Rebels claimed to be negatively affected by the ban. The team’s next game in the county is slated for April 27.

Blakeman’s executive order had affected around 100 facilities in Nassau County. While other states have enacted so-called bans on transgender athletes, this is a rare case in New York. A nationwide Senate bill on the matter is on hold.