Nassau transgender sports ban, Israel-Hamas war, nursing home oversight

Pediatrician Eve Meltzer Krief, unlike Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, is an expert in children’s health and apparently knows what she’s talking about [“Transgender sports ban is all about politics,” Opinion, Feb. 29].

Blakeman’s executive order banning transgender girls from playing sports in Nassau County facilities was a transparent, disingenuous effort to ingratiate himself with the anti-LGBTQ movement.

These kinds of bans do more harm than good, setting a dangerous tone that can send a message that hateful acts against the LGBTQ community are justified.

Sadly, by targeting transgender young people, Blakeman chose to use,

for his own political gain, his executive power to sacrifice a vulnerable group that struggles for acceptance and faces far greater rates of depression and suicide than their peers.

Instead of doing something to help the transgender community in Nassau County, he decided to put them at further risk. Blakeman claims that “biological males” are bullying their way onto female teams, but he is the true bully here.

— Karin Johnson, Rockville Centre

The writer, a parent of an LGBTQ child, is cofounder of RVC Pride.

It’s only political if you want to make it political. It’s hard to believe that a physician would take the transgender issue out of the scientific/medical realm and bring it into the political arena.

The transgender issue in sports is all about science, facts, fairness and sportsmanship. Interscholastic sports involves competition between reasonably equal opponents. The rules try to pit one competitor against another so competition is not planned to be totally one-sided. Age, weight and level of skill are often used to determine that.

Allowing a biological male to compete against a biological female defeats that formula in most, if not all, cases at the high school and college levels.

Saying the ban is “to protect women’s rights” and prevents an “unfair advantage” to males does not help these issues.

Title IX helped to foster more competition for female athletes. It strived to give females an equal place in scholastic and collegiate athletics. Placing transgender athletes into female sports does not. It actually defeats the intent of Title IX.

These are all valid points: Transgender females struggle with mental health issues, sports reduce anxiety and depression, and benefit camaraderie and acceptance, but not at the expense of biological female athletes.

— Michael Limmer, Wantagh

The writer is a retired high school teacher and coach of girls’ badminton and boys’ wrestling and lacrosse teams.

Bruce Blakeman continues to stick his nose into subjects not in his area of responsibility at the taxpayers’ expense.

Now, to support his discriminatory executive order banning transgender athletes from competing at county sports venues — which transgender individuals and their families pay taxes to support — Blakeman will use county dollars to support a federal lawsuit to fight New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ rescinding of his executive order [“Suit over transgender girls sports order,” News, March 7].

If you do not want your daughter to compete against transgender athletes, then do not participate in that league.

Freedom of choice is the bedrock of our democracy. Another bedrock is our continued support of laws banning discrimination against a person because of that individual’s race, religion, gender identity or expression.

— Michael Pasqual, Westbury

How does a supposed threat with zero instances occurring in Nassau County constitute a crisis?

— Robert Emproto, Huntington

Hamas isn't fighting for independence

The U.N. has never been a friend to Israel, often condemning the Jewish state. We’ve read that U.N. workers participated in the Oct. 7 attack in Israel. Now that it has been determined that Hamas soldiers raped Israeli women on Oct. 7, will the multinational body stop treating Hamas as if it is fighting for Palestinian independence [“UN: Rape was likely on Oct. 7,” Nation & World, March 5]? What aspect of raping, beating and defiling Israeli women furthers the purported goal of autonomous statehood?

— Josh Kardisch, East Meadow

Having worked in a government agency where my responsibilities included threat assessment and security, I see profoundly negative consequences to the Israeli assault on Gaza.

To the Arab world, displacing 2 million Palestinians, mass destruction of their homes and the bombing of tens of thousands of people can be considered ethnic cleansing. Already we have seen an explosion of antisemitism and escalating attacks on U.S. military installations.

History teaches us instability following the destruction of a region creates a vacuum, often filled by actors worse than the intended targets of the assault.

The destruction of Gaza is reminiscent of our disastrous invasion of Iraq, which created the Islamic State. When shock and the collective post-traumatic stress disorder of Israeli citizens subsides and rationality returns, the consequences of their carnage toward the population of Gaza will become painfully clear.

Palestinian children who survive will have witnessed the deaths of their families. Their rage will tragically fuel new and even more ruthless generations of Palestinian resistance groups, dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

— Thomas Collins, Bellmore

Nursing home owner: Taste your medicine

I am heartbroken to read of the terrible treatment of our elderly citizens by the Fulton Commons Care Center [“$8.6M settlement in nursing home abuse,” News, March 5].

This treatment has been going on for years, and the New York State oversight organization did not reach a settlement until now.

The fair resolution would have been not only a financial penalty but putting principal owner Moshe Kalter and his eight adult children, who are minority owners, into solitary confinement for a lengthy period. Let them get a taste of their own unsavory practices.

With a stiffer penalty, this also would have been a harsher reminder to other nursing home owners to adhere to ethical standards of health care.

— John Wolf, Levittown