After the Supreme Court ruled on June 30 to uphold state laws barring trans athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports in Idaho and West Virginia, the Mamdani administration issued a statement to remind trans athletes that they are welcome in New York City.
“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,” noted a joint statement issued by 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. “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 statement came just hours after the Supreme Court ruled that the two state laws barring trans athletes from girls’ and women’s sports do not violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 or the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The ruling is expected to have implications on dozens of other states that have passed similar laws.
“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,” the statement 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.”
Last year, the Trump administration announced plans to pull tens of millions of dollars in education funding from the city after it refused to meet a deadline to nix trans-inclusive policies in schools — an effort that later encountered legal roadblocks.
The Trump administration’s aggressively campaign to restrict the rights of trans-student athletes dates back to his first term when the administration targeted multiple educational institutions. The New Hampshire-based Franklin Pierce University enacted a policy in 2018 to allow trans athletes, but reversed the policy in 2020 in the face of 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.
