Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner supports New York policy banning trans women from sports

Caitlyn Jenner, an Olympic gold medalist, reality television personality, and a prominent, though controversial, transgender figure, expressed her support for a New York ordinance that restricts female sports teams with transgender athletes from accessing Nassau County-owned facilities. Speaking alongside County Executive Bruce Blakeman in Mineola on Monday, Jenner, 74, emphasized her concern that allowing transgender athletes like herself to compete against other cisgender women could detrimentally impact women’s sports. “Let’s stop it now while we can,” Jenner said, highlighting a preventive stance on what she perceives as a threat to the competitive balance within women’s athletics, NBC News reports.

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The Nassau County policy, as reported by Salon, specifically targets transgender women, effectively excluding them from participation in women’s sports teams that wish to use over 100 athletic facilities managed by the county. Notably absent from this policy is any mention of transgender men, whose experiences and challenges in the realm of competitive sports are seemingly disregarded by such legislative efforts. This omission is indicative of a broader pattern observed within Republican and far-right discourse, which frequently frames transgender inclusion in sports as a direct disadvantage to cisgender women, while the participation of transgender men remains largely unaddressed.

“All I’m trying to do is protect women,” Jenner said.

She contends that the inclusion of transgender women could undermine the progress achieved through Title IX, a law designed to eliminate sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational programs and activities, including athletics. Jenner’s stance has been met with criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates , who argue that such positions contribute to the marginalization and discrimination of transgender athletes.

Jenner, known for her support of ex-President Donald Trump, has often criticized the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s competitive sports. Born in New York, Jenner has made her home in the Los Angeles area for many years. She entered the political landscape with a bid for the governorship of California as a Republican candidate in 2021, but lost.

NBC News highlighted criticism from David Kilmnick of the Long Island-based LGBT Network, who described Jenner’s endorsement of the ban as a “baffling contradiction” to her own identity as a transgender woman, framing it as “not only hypocritical but also harmful” to the LGBTQ+ community.