Woke women's roller derby league welcomes biological males who identify as female, sues county exec over trans restrictions



A woke women's roller derby league not only welcomes biological males who identify as female but also the league is suing a Nassau County, New York, leader over restrictions on teams with transgender women.

What are the details?

The Long Island Roller Rebels — a nearly 20-year-old amateur league — is suing Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman over his February executive order meant to prevent women’s and girls' leagues and teams with transgender players from using county-run parks and fields, the Associated Press reported.

The order affects more than 100 public facilities in the county of nearly 1.4 million just east of Queens, the AP said.

The New York Civil Liberties Union is backing the league's suit, the outlet added.

“The whole point of derby has been to be this thing where people feel welcome,” Amanda Urena — the league’s 32-year-old vice president who competes as “Curly Fry” and identifies as queer — told the AP at a recent practice at United Skates of America in Seaford. “We want trans women to know that we want you to come play with us, and we’ll do our very best to keep fighting and making sure that this is a safe space for you to play.”

More from the outlet:

Sports leagues and teams seeking permits to play or practice in county-run parks must disclose whether they have or allow transgender women or girls. Any organization that allows them to play will be denied a permit, though men’s leagues and teams aren’t affected. [...]

The Roller Rebels sought a county permit this month in hopes of hosting practices and games in county-owned rinks in the upcoming season, as they have in prior years. But they expect to be denied, since the organization is open to anyone who identifies as a woman and has one transgender player already on the roster.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has demanded the county rescind the ban, saying it violates state anti-discrimination laws, the AP reported, adding that Blakeman has asked a federal judge to uphold it.

"We are protecting girls’ right to compete against other girls," Blakeman said in February. "It makes no sense for biological boys who identify as transgender to compete against girls. It’s completely unfair. Biological boys are faster, bigger, and stronger. They have a physical advantage against women."

'There is a chance I would get hurt'

The AP pointed to a 2022 Washington Post-University of Maryland Poll that found that 55% of Americans were against trans women and girls competing with other women and girls in high school sports — and 58% were opposed to it for college and professional sports.

Trinity Reed, 21, who plays lacrosse at Nassau County’s Hofstra University, told the outlet, "There is a chance [a woman] would get hurt" when competing against transgender women players.

Mia Babino, 18 — who plays field hockey at the State University of New York at Cortland and plans to transfer to Nassau County’s Molloy University — also supports the ban, the AP said: “We’ve worked very hard to get to where we are and to play at a college level."

Image source: YouTube screenshot

'You should have a safe place to be'

The outlet noted that roller derby has been an LGBTQ "haven" for decades.

“You come in here and you say, ‘I’m a trans woman. I’m a nonbinary person. I’m genderqueer.’ OK? We accept you,” Caitlin Carroll, a Roller Rebel who competes as “Catastrophic Danger," told the AP. “The world is scary enough. You should have a safe place to be.”

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Grace McKenzie — a 30-year-old transgender woman who plays for the New York Rugby Club’s women’s team — added to the outlet that children still trying to navigate their gender identities will suffer most due to the county ban.

“Cruel is the only word that I can use to describe it,” McKenzie told the AP. “Kids are using sports at that age to build relationships, make friendships, develop teamwork skills, leadership skills and, frankly, just help shield them from all the hate they face as transgender kids already.”

Emily Santosus — a 48-year old Long Island transgender woman who hopes to join a women’s softball team — told the outlet that the ban is "a solution in search of a problem. We’re not bullies. We’re the ones that get bullied.”

A roller derby league challenges ban on transgender women in sportsyoutu.be

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Transgender college swimmer who swam as a man for 3 years now crushing the competition at women's meets



After three years of competing as a male, a transgender swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania switched to competing as a female and is now dominating the competition, the Daily Wire reported this week.

What are the details?

Senior swimmer Lia Thomas, formerly known as Will Thomas, reportedly broke multiple school and conference records during a Nov. 20 swim meet against Cornell University and Princeton University.

According to SwimSwam, Thomas "blasted the number one 200 free time and the second-fastest 500 free time in the nation on Saturday, breaking Penn program records in both events." The swimming blog later noted that Thomas's times in both races marked new Ivy League records, as well.

Thomas also reportedly "swept the 100-200-500 free individual events and contributed to" Penn's first-place finish in the 400-meter freestyle relay. Thomas's time in the 200-meter free was "only half a second off the NCAA A cut" and was "the second-fastest women’s 200 free time in the nation so far this season," the blog added.

Earlier in the month, Thomas reportedly "took home a pair of gold medals in the 200 free and 100 free with margins of 5.4 seconds and 1.3 seconds" in a meet against Columbia University.

According to Penn Athletics, Thomas was much less dominant during his freshman, sophomore, and junior years at the school.

What's the background?

Thomas, who co-chairs Penn Non-Cis, a university club that seeks to build community for transgender and non-cisgender people, has reportedly been swimming competitively from a young age.

A prolific high school swimmer, Thomas enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017 with lofty ambitions. Between 2017 and 2019, Thomas competed as a male at the university, then took a year off during the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon returning, Thomas began competing as a female during the 2021 season.

“The process of coming out as being trans and continuing to swim was a lot of uncertainty and unknown around an area that’s usually really solid," Thomas recounted to Penn Today earlier this year. "Realizing I was trans threw that into question. Was I going to keep swimming? What did that look like?”

“Being trans has not affected my ability to do this sport and being able to continue is very rewarding,” Thomas added.

Anything else?

For some, Thomas' newfound success as a transgender athlete is considered a celebration of inclusiveness in collegiate athletics. But for many others, it is seen as yet another damaging blow to women's sports.

The latter group laments that when transgender females — who were born biologically male — compete in women's sporting events, they enjoy an obvious physical advantage and often leave female competitors unfairly outmatched and discouraged.

Transgender female athletes shouldn't be required to reduce testosterone to compete, International Olympic Committee says



The International Olympic Committee said transgender females shouldn't be required to reduce testosterone to compete in sports, Sky News reported.

What are the details?

The IOC's updated guidelines are not legally binding, the outlet said, adding that the organization said it's not in a position to issue broad regulations defining eligibility for every sport and will instead leave such decisions in the hands of individual federations.

"What we are offering to all the international federations is our expertise and a dialogue, rather than jumping to a conclusion," IOC director of the athletes' department Keveh Mehrabi said, Sky News noted.

But where the IOC stands on transgender issues seems pretty clear.

The body's new guidelines say that no athlete should be excluded from competition due to perceived "unfair and disproportionate advantage" as a result of gender, Sky News reported.

Previously transgender female athletes were allowed to compete only if their testosterone levels were below a required limit 12 months before their first competition, the outlet said.

But no longer apparently.

"You don't need to use testosterone [to decide who can compete] at all," IOC medical director Richard Budgett said, according to Sky News.

The IOC also decried sex testing to verify an athlete's gender as "disrespectful" and "potentially harmful" and "invasive," the outlet added.

"We really want to make sure that athletes are not pressured or coerced into making a harmful decision about their bodies," added Magali Martowicz, IOC head of human rights, according to Sky News.

Pushback

Not everyone was in complete agreement with the IOC.

Joanna Harper — visiting fellow for transgender athletic performance at England's Loughborough University — told ESPN that not presuming physical advantages when it comes to transgender females is "problematic for me. There is no doubt that transgender women are on average taller, bigger, and stronger than cisgender women and that these are advantages in many sports."

Laurel Hubbard

Indeed, the IOC's updated guidelines come just months after New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard — a biological male who identifies as female — became the first transgender athlete to compete in the Olympics.

Many critics have said Hubbard's presence is unfair to biologically female weightlifters.

In fact, it was reported in May that some biologically female weightlifters were told to "be quiet" after complaining about Hubbard competing against them.

"We're all about equality for women in sport, but right now that equality is being taken away from us," former Olympic weightlifter Tracey Lambrechs told Australia's 7 News in regard to Hubbard. "I've had female weightlifters come up to me and say, 'What do we do? This isn't fair, what do we do?' Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do because every time we voice it, we get told to be quiet."