Appeals judges appear skeptical of Nassau transgender athlete ban in Brooklyn hearing on possible injunction

An appeals court expressed skepticism about a Nassau law banning transgender women from competing in certain sporting events at county facilities, with one judge calling it "a slam dunk violation" of state human rights law during a hearing on Thursday.

Associate Justice Paul Wooten told Nassau Deputy Attorney John Carnevale the law violates the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) of 2019, which added gender identity or expression as a protected category under the state’s Human Rights Law.

Associate Justice Betsy Barros later expressed concerns that individuals would have to provide intimate personal information to participate in sports at Nassau County facilities.

"You should be able to live your life, you should play with who you want to play with," Barros said during the hearing in the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Brooklyn.

The hearing comes eight months after Nassau State Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cozzens denied a New York Civil Liberties Union request to temporarily block the law, through an injunction, while the case is going forward. The NYCLU took its request to the appeals court, which will rule at a later date.

NYCLU had filed a lawsuit challenging the law last year on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels, a North Massapequa roller derby organization that has at least one participant banned from Nassau facilities under the law.

NYCLU attorney Gabriella Larios told the four-judge panel that Nassau’s law violates state human rights and civil rights laws. It forces the organization to use private facilities that don’t meet its needs, she said, and hampers its ability to attract new members.

The law, she added, shreds transgender women’s dignity and casts them as less than full citizens. "It marks them with a scarlet T," Larios said.

Carnevale argued that the law is not discriminatory and told the judges that nobody has been denied a permit to use county facilities as a result of the ban. Athletes who use Nassau facilities have not been asked to provide personal information, he said.

The law promotes women’s sports, provides transparency by providing female athletes information about their competitors, Carnevale told the judges, and levels playing fields by prohibiting transgender women from playing against smaller female opponents.

Nassau could be held liable, Carnevale said, if a transgender woman injures a competitor at a county facility.

Associate Justice Lawrence L. Love pushed back, asking if the county has weight or size restrictions to ensure athletes’ safety. "Is it a safety issue addressing any of that," he asked, "or is it solely a biological birth issue?"

Carnevale told the judges that applications for facility use ask if organizations are male, female or coed. Transgender women can use the facilities, he said, if they mark the coed box.

"When the county argues that trans women can just check a coed box, that is saying they don’t deserve equal treatment," Larios told Newsday following Thursday’s hearing. "State law doesn’t just give people access to facilities. It gives them equal access, and Nassau County is denying equal access to transgender women and girls."

Larios said the Long Island Roller Rebels’ rules explicitly say that transgender women are welcome. Barring women from the organization would result in its expulsion by its governing body. The Roller Rebels are members of the Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association, which has more than 360 member leagues, according to the LIRR website.

"They say this is about safety," Larios told the judges. "Our league has its own robust safety standards."

Carnevale declined to comment following Thursday’s hearing.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman issued an executive order early last year barring transgender athletes from playing at county facilities unless they compete on teams matching the gender they were assigned at birth, or on coed teams.

Nassau Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano ruled in May 2024 that Blakeman did not have the authority to impose the ban. The Nassau Legislature approved a law similar to Blakeman’s executive order by a 12-5 vote in June 2024.

Barros asked if any women or girls had told lawmakers they were concerned about competing against transgender women, or if there was any evidence supporting the law presented to the legislature. Carnevale seemed to avoid answering the question, saying: "There was public comment," without elaboration.