The Long Island Roller Rebels suffered a defeat on Tuesday when a judge blocked the roller derby team’s effort to temporarily halt Nassau County’s ban on transgender athletes competing on female sports teams.
Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Bruce Cozzens claimed in his ruling that the county law passed last summer doesn’t exclude transgender women and girls from public facilities based on their gender identities because they can still play in coed sports leagues.
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“There can be no question (even without discovery) that a biological male regardless of transitioning would be possessed of greater athleticism and speed, strength, muscle mass, stronger hearts and greater bone density,” Cozzens asserted. “The goal of the local law is to provide a safe environment for individuals who are born female to play.”
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He described transgender women playing on female sports teams as a “potential liability” for the local government.
The loss comes as the county east of New York City is embroiled in a bitter fight over transgender athletes, which began with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s unilateral decision in February last year to bar the county’s parks department from issuing permits to women’s and girls’ sports teams that include transgender athletes.
“They have a competitive advantage,” the Republican official said, referring to transgender athletes. “It’s unfair, and it’s also unsafe.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a cease-and-desist order to Blakeman, saying, “Pernicious discrimination such as this is precisely what New York’s Human and Civil Rights Laws proscribe.” She gave the executive a week to repeal the law before she would initiate legal action.
Instead, Blakeman filed a federal lawsuit asking the court to decide whether or not the ordinance passes legal muster — an effort to delay repealing the mandate.
A New York judge ruled in May that Blakeman “acted beyond the scope of his authority” in issuing the order and overturned it.
The county’s Republican-controlled legislature responded by passing a local law to enshrine the ban, prompting the latest round of litigation, including a challenge to the new law by the Roller Rebels.
Attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union Gabriella Larios, who represents the Roller Rebels in the latest case, called the decision to deny the injunction while it makes its way through the courts “an outlier.” The Roller Rebels called it “transphobic”.
“At a time of rising anti-LGBTQ+ hate and violence across the country, keeping this ban intact is not only cruel, but it is also dangerous,” said Amanda “Curly Fry” Urena, president of the roller derby team. “We hope that New York’s courts will ultimately strike down this unlawful ban and acknowledge it for what it is — transphobic and unjust.”
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