Court Strikes Down Nassau County Trans Athlete Ban in Another Blow to Blakeman

The ban, enacted in 2024, followed attempts by Bruce Blakeman, the county executive, to remove transgender athletes from sports facilities in the Long Island county.

A New York appeals court on Wednesday struck down a ban on transgender athletes in Nassau County, delivering yet another blow to Bruce Blakeman, the county executive who lost the governor's race to Kathy Hochul on Tuesday.

The lawsuit was brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a women's roller derby league, the Long Island Roller Rebels, which welcomes transgender participants.

Mr. Blakeman signed a short-lived executive order in February 2024 barring athletic organizations with transgender girls and women from more than 100 county facilities. The order was struck down, but the County Legislature soon passed a broader ban, which the Roller Rebels challenged in court.

On Wednesday, the Second Department of the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court found that both human rights law and civil rights law "expressly prohibit the county from restricting access to places of public accommodation based on a person's gender identity or expression, including whether the person identifies as transgender."

Thomas Adams, the Nassau County attorney, said in a statement that the county was "reviewing the decision with the intention to continue the appeals process." Nassau County had not been able to enforce the ban since October last year, when the Roller Rebels were granted a preliminary injunction while the case proceeded.

In signing the order, Mr. Blakeman, a Republican, had staked out a position in the nationwide debate over how and when transgender athletes can participate in women's sports, further aligning himself with the politics of President Trump. His entree into the cultural debate over transgender athletes also raised his national profile ahead of his run for governor.

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