The largest school district in Manhattan may soon prohibit transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams. However, LGBTQ+ supporters and New York Attorney General Letitia James are resisting these bans, calling them unjust and unlawful.
Community Education Council [CEC] 2, which covers parts of Lower Manhattan and the Upper East Side, is set to vote on a non-binding resolution to create a committee that would suggest changes to the district’s current sports participation rules. The committee would consist of female athletes, parents, coaches, relevant medical professionals, and evolutionary biology experts. They will discuss the impact of including transgender individuals in sports.
The lead sponsor of the resolution, CEC member Maud Maron, stated, “Girls and women lose when their hard-earned sports opportunities are overlooked in favor of replacing biological sex with gender identity.”
Maron, who is also the co-president of PLACE NYC, a parental rights in education group, has previously stated, “There is no such thing as trans kids.” Maron is also the former interim executive director of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, an organization opposed to anti-racism education in schools. The resolution is also co-sponsored by Charles Love, who headlined a recent Manhattan event by the anti-LGBTQ+ parents rights group Moms for Liberty Since 2019, the New York City Department of Education has allowed students to play on school sports teams based on their gender identity..
The resolution claims that when the department created its 2019 policy, it may not have consulted female athletes, coaches, sports medicine doctors, or evolutionary biology experts. Instead, the policy was “developed by the City’s first LGBTQ Liaison and stakeholders who were already supportive” of it. The resolution argues that the policy may put cisgender female athletes at a disadvantage in terms of their access to “team roster spots, titles, awards, records, scholarships, achievements and [other] opportunities.”
However, LGBTQ+ supporters are pushing back.
CEC member Gavin Healy stated, “My first reaction is this is just a complete red herring; it’s a made-up issue,
according to the NY Daily News . “I’m not aware of any case of a student missing out on a trophy or medal or scholarship opportunity because of this policy.” He said he has spoken to families with trans members who feel the resolution is an attack on them and their identities.A local group called Bigot Blockade has also
started a petition asking people to speak out against the resolution. “Statements of the gender identity policy ‘hurting female athletes’ [are] false and based on the incorrect idea that allowing trans students to participate in sports lessens the experience of other student athletes,” the petition says. “This trans-exclusionary feminism is harmful to all students, especially LGBTQIA+ students.”
In early March, New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a cease-and-desist letter to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman after he issued an executive order banning trans women from participating on women’s sports teams in over 100 athletic centers across Long Island. His order requires every member of an athletic team to designate their sex assigned at birth when joining.
New York Attorney General Letitia James stated that the law is very clear: you cannot treat someone unfairly because of their gender identity or how they express it. She added that there is no place for hate or intolerance in New York. She also called the executive order transphobic and clearly against the law, urging Nassau County to withdraw it immediately, or else they will take legal action without hesitation.
The government of President Joe Biden
has instructed schools to permit the use of chosen names by trans and nonbinary students , as well as allowing them to use facilities such as bathrooms and sports teams that align with their gender identity. However, some Republican-led states and school districts have enacted anti-trans policies, which restrict bathroom and locker room access, disclose a student's trans identity to unsupportive parents, and prohibit other supportive measures for young people identifying as a gender different from their sex assigned at birth. pronounsNew York Attorney General Letitia James supports the activists' cause.
