Thursday, October 1, 2026
More than 200 people gathered for Long Island’s largest rally in support of the transgender community at the Nassau County Legislative building in Mineola on May 31 to express support for the trans, non-binary and intersex communities.
Organized by Huntington Station-based nonprofit Gender Equality New York, which advocates for the rights of transgender, gender non-binary and intersex New Yorkers, the event highlighted support for shield laws that protect both reproductive and gender-affirming health care being targeted by legislators across the country.
“We’re here to show courage in the face of hate and discrimination. We’re here to affirm our existence to those who would rather see us erased,” Juli Grey-Owens, executive director of GENY, said. “We are here to stand firm and fight for our rights, our dignity and for our future.”
Transgender and non-binary communities in New York State were only recently granted civil rights protections with the passage of 2019’s Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act. This followed years of organizing from various transgender activists. But nationally, transgender rights have been under attack since Donald Trump’s first presidency.
“They’re targeting trans kids, criminalizing gender affirming care, and feeding the flames of hate to score political points,” said Chanel Lopez, deputy director of LGBTQ+ Affairs for Governor Kathy Hochul. “We are here to say ‘not in New York, not today, not ever.’” New York has pledged to be a safe haven to trans people.
A wave of recent anti-transgender legislation passed by state legislatures around the country has prohibited access to medical care, limited trans adults from making decisions regarding their own bodies and criminalized trans people’s existence.
“There is strong consensus among the most prominent medical organizations that evidence-based, gender affirming care for transgender children is medically necessary and appropriate. It can even be life saving,” local pediatrician, Dr. Eve Meltzer-Krief, said. “Gender affirming firming care is health care. It is mental health care, and far too often, it is suicide prevention care.”
“At a moment when the federal government and roughly half U.S. states are aligned in attacking access to abortion and gender affirming care, New York must take action to protect providers, patients, seekers, and supporters,” Arlo Fleischer, local organizer with the New York Civil Liberties Union, said.
She explained how several states are not only stopping care provided within their state, but are actively working to “prevent people from accessing care in other states by imposing civil and criminal penalties on those who treat them.”
In February, Trump signed an executive order seeking to prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in girls’ and women’s sports, similar to local legislation passed in June 2024 by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
“We have seen across the state this slow rolling back of the protections that we have been able to achieve here in New York, and we must stand strong and united in solidarity with one another in order to fight back,” Kei Williams, executive director of New Pride Agenda, said.
While the Nassau County trans athlete ban has many issues, state laws protecting Long Island’s trans residents who partake in sports under their preferred identity also supersede it.
The ban has contributed to larger discrimination against those who don’t fit in under the label of man or woman.
“Nassau County has fallen prey to the propaganda that trans people are a problem. I’m here to tell you, we’re not going to stand for that,” Dolores Covrigaru, a Human Rights Campaign board member and a mom who raised her trans child in Nassau County, said.
