The Supreme Court ruled on June 30 that states can legally bar transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, upholding laws in Idaho and West Virginia. New York City issued a statement saying its own protections for trans student athletes are not changing.
Taylor Brown, the director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, and Christine Clarke, the chair and commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, released a joint statement responding to the ruling, according to Gay City News. “While the Supreme Court today has chosen to permit states to explicitly discriminate against transgender students, the reality on the ground in New York City remains unchanged,” they wrote. “The City of New York will continue to be a place where transgender students can play the sports they love and be treated at all times with dignity and respect.”
The court found that the Idaho and West Virginia laws, which restrict participation in girls’ and women’s sports to students assigned female at birth, do not violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 or the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The ruling is expected to affect dozens of other states that have passed similar laws, Gay City News reported.
The Mamdani administration’s statement said New York operates under a different legal framework. “It has been and continues to be unlawful in the State and City of New York to discriminate against anyone, including students, simply because they are transgender or intersex,” Brown and Clarke continued. “Under the New York Constitution as well as New York City and State law, transgender and intersex students, like all students, remain eligible to participate in athletic opportunities consistent with who they are. This administration has and will continue to stand with transgender New Yorkers, as well as transgender people across the country who will suffer as a result of today’s decision.”
The city has been pushing back against federal pressure on trans-inclusive school policies for more than a year. Last year, the Trump administration announced plans to pull tens of millions of dollars in education funding from New York City after the city refused to meet a deadline to eliminate trans-inclusive school policies, an effort that later ran into legal roadblocks, Gay City News reported.
The Trump administration’s targeting of trans student athletes predates this term. New Hampshire-based Franklin Pierce University adopted a policy in 2018 allowing trans athletes to compete, then reversed it in 2020 under pressure from the Trump administration. During Trump’s first term, the administration and the anti-LGBTQ legal group Alliance Defending Freedom also targeted the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s policy allowing trans student athletes to participate in accordance with their gender identity, according to Gay City News.
