Nassau County legislature voted to ban transgender female athletes from competing on female teams at county-owned facilities.
The Republican-controlled legislature outside New York City voted 12-5 to bar transgender athletes from competing at facilities unless they participate on teams that correspond to their assigned birth gender or coed teams.
The vote was along party lines, with two of the legislature’s seven Democrats absent.
This follows Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s executive order attempting to enact similar restrictions.
Blakeman said this measure aimed to safeguard girls and women from injuries while competing against transgender women.
In response to this, Attorney General Letitia James issued a cease and desist letter, and the Long Island Roller Rebels, a women’s roller derby league, filed a lawsuit over the ban.
James said this action was “transphobic” and a violation of state anti-discrimination laws.
In April, a federal judge upheld James’s challenge of this ban, allowing her office to proceed with its legal efforts to repeal the order.
In May, a judge ruled that Blakeman had issued this order “despite there being no corresponding legislative enactment” granting him such authority.
After this vote, Blakeman is now expected to sign the bill into law.
During this meeting, transgender advocates protested outside with signs that read “trans women are women,” as reported by the New York Times.
John. R. Ferretti Jr., a Republican county legislator for the 15th District, said the bill is not a transgender ban, emphasizing that transgender women would still have the opportunity to participate in male or coed leagues.
“This is a hateful and blatantly illegal bill. If signed into law, we’ll see Nassau in court — again,” the New York Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the roller derby league, said after the vote.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Arnold Drucker, a Democratic county legislator for the 16th District, said the bill was “in clear contravention of the state law.”
“It’s beyond me why this county executive wants to continue squandering taxpayer hard-earned dollars on legal fees defending this law,” Drucker said.