Former Olympic gold winner Caitlyn Jenner doesn’t believe that transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports in an effort to “protect the integrity of competition.”
Jenner spoke out in support of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s recently passed ban, which does not allow transgender identifying athletes to play against female competitors at any of the county’s sporting facilities.
Blakeman issued an executive order in February, which required all sporting teams and organizations to obtain permits from the Nassau parks and recreation department that “expressly designate” if they are male, female or coed.
Teams that are designated as female will not be able to obtain a permit, if transgender athletes are part of the roster.
Caitlyn Jenner backs Nassau County, NY plan to ban transgender athletes competing as women.
The Olympic gold medalist spoke alongside elected officials today saying “Let’s stop it now while we can.”
Nassau County is set to ban trans athletes competing as women in 100 athletic… pic.twitter.com/i76H4t1owp
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) March 18, 2024
According to Jenner, who won Olympic gold in the 1976 men’s decathlon, but came out as transgender in recent years, Blakeman’s order makes sense.
“Trans women are competing against women, taking valuable opportunities for the long-protected class under Title IX, and causing physical harm,” Jenner said while standing beside Blakeman in Nassau County on Monday.
The former world-class athlete noted that the difference between men and women is chromosomal, puberty gives men “massive advantages,” creating “undeniable differences” between the sexes.
Jenner referred to the concussion and neck injury that were suffered by then North Carolina high school senior Payton McNabb in 2022, when a transgender player spiked a ball in her face during a girls’ volleyball game.
“The average spike for a man, a good spike, is 82 miles-an-hour. The average spike for women, 64 miles-an-hour, a 30 percent great velocity playing a man. And that’s why we have to protect women’s sports,” Jenner pointed out.
Caitlyn Jenner reacts to trans golfer Hayley Davidson being barred from competing in Womens golf:
“For the integrity of women’s sports, we just cannot go down this direction.”
Jenner added “I think the LPGA and NXXT series was right in trying to stop it now” – @Caitlyn_Jenner pic.twitter.com/liEN7dy1T4
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) March 12, 2024
“The solution is simple: when it comes to athletics… you have to compete in the biological sex in which you were born,” Jenner added.
“This is critical to protect the integrity of competition in women’s sports.”
Despite her stance, Jenner noted that she has plenty of “empathy for all LGBT people, and I have a thorough understanding of all the struggles, no matter how different our circumstances may be.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union slapped Blakeman and Nassau County with a lawsuit that alleges the ban is a violation of state human rights and civil rights law.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said that the order “discriminates against transgender women” in a statement last week.
“The law is perfectly clear: You cannot discriminate against a person because of their gender identity or expression. We have no room for hate or bigotry in New York,” James commented.
“This executive order is transphobic and blatantly illegal. Nassau County must immediately rescind the order, or we will not hesitate to take decisive legal action.”
My EO stops the bullying of women and girls by transgender males who have many outlets to compete without putting the safety and security of females in danger.
In Nassau we will continue to fight for females’ right to be safe, secure, and have a level playing field to compete. https://t.co/sq9OI45vIn
— Bruce Blakeman (@NassauExec) March 1, 2024
Blakeman argued that the order “stops the bullying of women and girls by transgender males who have many outlets to compete without putting the safety and security of females in danger.”
He’s “confident” that his executive order is “on the right side of the law.”
Jenner hit back at James and took aim at President Biden during the press conference on Monday.
“In New York, we have an activist Attorney General, Letitia James, that alleges and seems to think that state laws and preferences supersede federal law,” she refuted.
“Specifically Title IX and the 14th Amendment of the US the Constitution, which guarantees no state shall deny a person equal protection under the law,” the former Olympian stated.
“In the United States, we have a president, Joe Biden, who has called for an amendment to Title IX as we know it,” she directed at the president.
“In effect it erases the protections and the hard-fought battles that women have fought in sports.”
Blakeman thinks that rescinding his order would be a violation of “women’s rights,” and that transgender athletes still could participate in sports by playing on co-ed or male teams.
He noted that women and girls have “had enough” of playing with transgender athletes.
“They don’t want unfair competition, and they don’t want to subject themselves to other things that put them in danger and in jeopardy, like sharing locker rooms with biological males,” he said at the beginning of March.