Appeals Court Strikes Down Nassau County Transgender Sports Ban

New York’s Appellate Division, Second Department, on Wednesday struck down a Nassau County law that barred transgender women and girls from women’s and girls’ sports at county-run athletic facilities, ABC7 New York and News 12 reported.

The decision

The case, Long Island Roller Rebels v. County of Nassau, was brought in 2024 by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a women’s roller derby league that welcomes transgender players. The court held that the county’s local law violates the New York State Human Rights Law and Civil Rights Law, which bar discrimination based on gender identity or expression, according to the NYCLU. News 12 reported that the panel also treated the measure as sex discrimination and found it invalid under the state Constitution and the municipal home rule law.

The NYCLU said the ruling is binding across New York State. In a parallel decision heard the same day, the court also sided with New York State, which had filed its own challenge to the ban, the group said.

How the ban began

County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, issued an executive order in February 2024 that kept leagues with transgender women and girls on their rosters out of more than 100 county facilities, according to The New York Times as cited by Quartz. After that order was struck down, the County Legislature passed a broader ban, which the Roller Rebels challenged. The county has been unable to enforce it since October 2025, when the league won a preliminary injunction, the Times reported.

“Today, the court made it abundantly clear that any attempt to ban trans women and girls from public spaces in New York is prohibited by our state’s antidiscrimination laws,” NYCLU senior staff attorney Gabriella Larios said in a statement.

The county’s next step

Nassau County Attorney Thomas Adams said the county is “reviewing the decision with the intention to continue the appeals process,” according to ABC7. With the ruling, the Roller Rebels can again play at county-run facilities, ABC7 reported.

Sources: New York Civil Liberties Union, ABC7 New York, News 12 New York, Quartz, The New York Times.