County Exec Sues New York Over An Order To Rescind His Ban On Transgender Female Athletes – News18

MINEOLA, N.Y.: A county govt within the New York City suburbs has filed a federal lawsuit difficult a state order demanding he rescind a controversial ban on transgender athletes competing in women and girls’s sports activities.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman stated in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the “cease and desist” letter issued by state Attorney General Letitia James violates the U.S. Constitution’s “equal protection” clause, which is enshrined within the 14th Amendment.

The Republican argues that forcing him to rescind his Feb. 22 govt order denies “biological females’ right to equal opportunities in athletics” in addition to their “right to a safe playing field” by exposing them to elevated danger of harm in the event that they’re compelled to compete in opposition to transgender girls.

Blakeman is slated to carry a information convention at his workplace in Mineola on Wednesday together with a 16-yr-outdated feminine volleyball participant who lives in Nassau County and her dad and mom who’re additionally plaintiffs within the lawsuit.

James’ workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the litigation.

The Democrat on Friday had threatened authorized motion if Blakeman didn’t rescind the order in per week, arguing in her letter that the native order violates New York’s anti-discrimination legal guidelines and topics girls’s and women sports activities groups to “intrusive and invasive questioning” and different pointless necessities.

“The law is perfectly clear: You cannot discriminate against a person because of their gender identity or expression. We have no room for hate or bigotry in New York,” James stated on the time.

Blakeman argues in his lawsuit that the order doesn’t outright ban transgender people from collaborating in any sports activities within the county. Transgender feminine athletes will nonetheless be capable to play on male or co-ed groups, he stated.

Blakeman’s order requires any sports activities groups, leagues, packages or organizations searching for a allow from the county’s parks and recreation division to “expressly designate” whether or not they’re male, feminine or coed primarily based on their members’ “biological sex at birth.”

It covers greater than 100 websites within the densely populated county subsequent to New York City, from ballfields to basketball and tennis courts, swimming swimming pools and ice rinks.

The govt order adopted scores of payments enacted in Republican-governed states over the previous few years focusing on transgender folks. ___

Associated Press reporter Michael Hill in Albany, New York contributed to this story.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)