Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner voiced her support on Monday for a local New York official’s decision to prohibit female sports teams with transgender athletes from utilizing county-owned facilities.
The ban, affecting over 100 athletic facilities in New York City’s Long Island suburbs, was discussed by Jenner alongside Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman at his office in Mineola. Jenner, who publicly came out as a transgender woman in 2015, expressed concerns that permitting transgender athletes, including herself, to compete against women would have enduring detrimental effects on women’s sports.
“Let’s halt it now while we still can,” stated the reality television star.
Jenner’s stance drew criticism from the LGBT Network, a Long Island-based advocacy group, which deemed her comments contradictory and harmful to the LGBTQ community. David Kilmnick, the group’s president, characterized Jenner’s position as contributing to the oppression of fellow community members, undermining efforts toward inclusivity.
Blakeman, a Republican elected in 2021, had issued an executive order in February mandating that any teams seeking permits from the county’s parks and recreation department must explicitly designate themselves as male, female, or coed. Teams designated as “female” would be denied permits if they included transgender athletes.
Notably, the ban does not extend to men’s teams with transgender athletes and encompasses all Nassau County-owned facilities, such as ballfields, basketball and tennis courts, swimming pools, and ice rinks.
Jenner, who won an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon in 1976 competing against men, expressed sympathy for LGBTQ individuals but argued that allowing transgender individuals to compete with women would undercut the progress achieved by female athletes under Title IX.
“My objective is to safeguard women,” Jenner emphasized.
Jenner, known for her support of former President Donald Trump, has been an outspoken critic of transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.
Blakeman defended the ban as a measure to ensure fair play and safeguard girls and women from potential injuries when competing against transgender women, despite the inclusion of non-contact sports like swimming, gymnastics, figure skating, and track in the executive order.
The Long Island Roller Rebels, a local women’s roller derby league, challenged the county order in court, contending that it violates the state’s anti-discrimination laws. The New York Civil Liberties Union, representing the league, denounced Jenner’s involvement as another attempt to target and vilify transgender women and girls.
Attorney General Letitia James labeled Blakeman’s order as “transphobic and discriminatory” and accused it of violating state law. Blakeman, in response, filed a lawsuit seeking affirmation of the order’s legality in federal court.
The order forms part of a broader trend of anti-transgender athletic restrictions enacted nationwide, with approximately 24 states passing bills barring trans youth from participating in sports, though legal challenges have stalled some of these measures.
