(LifeSiteNews) — A New York judge has struck down a locality’s ban on “transgender” males competing against actual females at county-owned facilities, ruling that officials lacked the authority to take such an executive action without legislative authorization.
Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman announced the ban back in February, declaring that “there are men’s and boys’ leagues, there are women’s and girls’ leagues, and there are co-ed leagues […] What we are saying here today with our executive order is that if a league or team identifies themselves or advertises themselves to be a girls or women’s league or team, then biological males should not be competing in those leagues.” The order did not prohibit gender-confused males from male or co-ed teams.
“It’s just science, and it’s common sense and obvious that a biological male typically [is] larger, faster and stronger than a female participant,” he added, calling male domination of female opponents a “form of bullying.”
LGBT groups and left-wing Attorney General Letitia James condemned the move, and the New York Civil Liberties Union sued the county on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels, a roller derby league with “transgender” members.
On Friday, Judge Francis Ricigliano sided with the challengers, writing that Blakeman had issued his order “despite there being no corresponding legislative enactment providing the County Executive with the authority to issue such an order,” acting “beyond the scope of his authority as the Chief Executive Officer of Nassau County.”
However, Blakeman told the New York Post he will appeal. “Lack of courage from a Judge who didn’t want to decide the case on its merits. Unfortunately, girls and women are hurt by the Court,” he said. “The plaintiffs conceded that I had the authority to issue the Executive Order and the judge on his own went out of his way to avoid ruling on the merits.”
Mandatory inclusion of gender-confused individuals in opposite-sex sports is promoted as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities, as well as undermining female players’ basic safety and privacy rights by forcing them to share showers and changing areas with members of the opposite sex.
There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winning women’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be negated by hormone suppression.
In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men [do] not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone therapy;” therefore, “the advantage to transwomen [biological men] afforded by the [International Olympic Committee] guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”
Both aspects of the controversy have been highlighted by former University of Pennsylvania swimmer William “Lia” Thomas, who reportedly retains male genitalia and is still attracted to women yet “identifies” as female and lesbian. Thomas quickly started dominating women’s swimming after switching from the men’s team, and caused his female teammates unrest due to sharing lockers with them. Yet the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has reportedly pressured swimmers and their parents against speaking out.