Embattled NY AG Letitia James accused of bullying women with trans sports stance in new federal lawsuit
Embattled NY AG Letitia James accused of bullying women with trans sports stance in new federal lawsuit
Nassau County Republican squares off against Democrats in New York lawsuit
By Published March 19, 2024 4:00am EDT
Caitlyn Jenner joins Nassau County executive in battle over trans athletes in women’s sports
Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner flew to New York Monday to stand with a local official who is suing AG Letitia James in federal court over her push to force Nassau County to allow biological males to compete in all-female sporting events.
After New York Attorney General Letitia James ordered Nassau County to “cease-and-desist” a new ban on biological males competing in female sports, local leaders responded with a federal lawsuit declaring the state’s stance a form of “bullying” against women.
It’s the latest in a saga pitting New York’s Democratic leadership against a Republican-led county fed up with progressive mandates.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman issued an executive order in February banning trans women and girls from competing in all-female sporting events at county-owned facilities, arguing that such competitions are unfair, unconstitutional and physically dangerous.
James issued a cease-and-desist order against the county. Then the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of a women’s roller derby team, calling the order a “harmful, transphobic policy.”
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Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference at her office in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
Now Nassau County is taking James and the state of New York to federal court, alleging in another lawsuit that the attorney general is “unconstitutionally discriminating” against women and girls.
“This is not anti-trans, this is protecting women and girls,” Blakeman said Monday at a news briefing alongside Olympic champion and trans activist Caitlyn Jenner, arguing that his order protects female athletes from “bullying” and ensures fairness and safety.
Jenner, who described New York as a “living hellscape,” called out James’ priorities, juxtaposing violence on New York City’s subway trains alongside the attorney general’s lawsuits against former President Donald Trump and Nassau County.
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Caitlyn Jenner condemns biological male athletes in women’s and girls’ sports at a news briefing in Nassau County, New York, on Monday, March 18, 2024. (Fox News)
“My fear is that if this woke agenda, that’s out there, you know, the DEI world that’s out there, if this continues, it’ll ruin women’s sports over the next 10 to 20 years. Let’s stop it now while we can,” she said, prompting applause from people in the crowd. “What’s going to happen 20 years from now… when young girls are going to want to go out for sports and they’re going to say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to play girls sports. I have to play against the boys.'”
The two lawsuits lay out arguments of both sides on the trans sports debate while asking the court to decide on a critical issue – “the legally recognized point of gender identity,” said David Gelman, a New Jersey-based attorney and former prosecutor.
Read the federal lawsuit here
“Nassau County’s position is grounded in the reality that a person who is born as a male (biological male) but who identifies as a female is still in fact a biological male,” Gelman told Fox News Digital. “If you accept that premise, then these transgender individuals are males who do not fall into a protected class and who are in fact infringing upon the rights of a protected class (females).”
On the other hand, the courts could view trans women as falling within the federally defined protected class of women, he said.
“The NYCLU in its Verified Petition essentially ignores biological reality, pretends that gender is essentially unknown at birth despite biological markers that speak to the contrary, and simply defines these individuals as another type of female, ‘transgender females,’ in need of protection,” he said.
