Biological males and females should not compete

On March 6, I stood with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman as he announced a lawsuit against state Attorney General Letitia James. By way of background, Blakeman issued an executive order banning the use of county athletic facilities by teams with any members who are biological males who have transitioned or identify as female. James then issued a cease-and-desist order to the county executive, claiming that his executive order violated state law.

The lawsuit claims that the order is in compliance with federal law, which supersedes state law.

Without getting into the intricacies of the legal fight, let’s just say that I hope that Blakeman’s position on this matter survives this and any additional litigation that might transpire. But I do want to discuss the reason that I stood with him and support his action on this issue.

Let me state at the outset that I respect the right of an adult to make decisions about his or her own body and life, as long as what they do does not impinge on the rights of another person. Whether or not I approve is irrelevant. As long as it doesn’t hurt someone else, I understand that it is simply none of my business. But I also believe that one person can’t blithely do what they want when it hurts someone else.

I have granddaughters who play on a team in a girls’ sports league. The teams are divided by age and size in the interest of fairness and safety. Obviously, in most sports, everything else being equal, bigger and stronger wins almost every time.

It’s no secret that most boys and men are bigger and stronger than girls and women of similar ages. I doubt that you’ll ever see women playing in the NFL. The weight of science (and let’s not discard common sense and experience) shows that changing the testosterone-estrogen balance in a biological male might diminish, but won’t eliminate, the superior muscular strength and size. Letting such a person compete against biological girls and women is unsafe, and unfair to the girls who have worked hard to excel in their sport.

There have been several reported incidents of injuries in such situations. In one recent one, a transgender male injured several opposing female players in a high school basketball game in Massachusetts. At halftime the coach decided to forfeit the game rather than have his female players continue to compete against the biological male and risk further injury.

The women from whom I’ve received feedback — and particularly mothers of female athletes — agree that it’s wrong for biological males to compete against biological females, and I wholeheartedly concur. Imagine how a parent might react knowing that their daughter, who worked hard for years to hone her skills in a sport, lost out on an athletic scholarship that was awarded to a transgender male instead.

Then there’s the issue of privacy. Allowing biological males to share girls’ locker rooms is, once again, a severe violation of those girls’ privacy. It is also unsafe, as evidenced by some unfortunate incidents we have seen in the press.

Finally, some say that there are a vanishingly small number of people whom this will affect. That’s probably true, but so what? How many injured or disappointed girls are too many? Frankly, I don’t see the relevance of this argument. If one girl is hurt, or potentially hurt, by a bad policy, that’s enough for me to support protective action to make sure it doesn’t happen.

Howard Kopel represents Nassau County’s 7th Legislative District and is the Legislature’s presiding officer.