The next front of the transgender athlete debate is unfolding in the Empire State as uber-liberal New York City and an eastern neighbor, Nassau County, are embroiled in separate disputes over biological men competing in female sports. 

In what could signal a shifting tide at overwhelmingly Democratic New York City, a resolution on Wednesday from Manhattan’s District 2 calls for the city’s education department to consider female athletes in its gender guidelines. 

As transgender issues have become a flashpoint in the American culture wars, pushback is growing when it comes to sports. Gallup polling in 2021 indicated that 62 percent of Americans believed that “transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that conform with their birth gender,” and that number has grown since. In 2023, 69 percent of Americans believed sports teams should be based on biological sex. 

“The MAGA movement has come to Manhattan,” the borough president, Mark Levine, said of the council resolution, which critics have labeled as “regressive and harmful” for transgender youth. Yet, the resolution doesn’t call for a flat-out ban of transgender athletes. Rather, it requests a committee of female athletes, parents, coaches, and medical professionals to weigh in.

The city’s education department didn’t consider the historic fight for fair and accessible female sports when it changed the term “biological sex” to “gender identity” across the board in its 2019 gender guidelines, the resolution notes. Instead of considering the input of female athletes, the guidelines were developed by an LGBTQ Liaison that already wanted to replace “sex” with “gender identity,” it adds.

One of the resolution’s sponsors, Maud Maron, said transgender voices should be included but shouldn’t be the only perspective upon which policies are based. 

“What I am saying and what this resolution calls for is to say, let’s hear from all of the impacted voices. Of course that includes the voices of trans people, trans athletes, 100 percent,” she said, per Politico. “But what I’m hearing in return is no, only one point of view gets to be heard.”

The department is signaling that its guidelines aren’t likely to be changed, insisting that students have a right to participate in sports based on their gender identity. Yet the eight to three passage of the resolution in a district that represents some of the city’s wealthiest areas could signal growing pushback to biological males competing against females. 

Meanwhile, nearby Nassau County has been in the spotlight this past month over similar issues. In February, the county’s executive, Bruce Blakeman, signed an executive order banning biological males from competing in female sports in county-owned facilities. 

Noting that historically women have had fewer opportunities in sports than biological males have, the order says females “deserve the opportunity to demonstrate their strength, skills, and athletic abilities” and that a “supportive and safe environment” for biological females must be maintained. 

The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, sent a cease and desist order to Mr. Blakeman after it was issued, saying it violated New York’s anti-discrimination laws.

“We have no room for hate or bigotry in New York,” Ms. James said, threatening further legal action if the order wasn’t rescinded. “This executive order is transphobic and blatantly illegal.” Mr. Blakeman filed a lawsuit in federal court in response, arguing that Ms. James’ cease and desist was a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. 

The New York Civil Liberties Union sued Nassau County over the order, arguing that it violates human rights laws. Mr. Blakeman this week held an event with transgender Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner, who said “you have to compete in the biological sex that you were born in,” which is “critical to protecting the integrity of competition in women’s sports.”