Caitlyn Jenner / Web Summit
CV NEWS FEED // Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner, a man who identifies as a “transgender woman,” this week expressed support of a New York county’s order prohibiting male athletes from competing in women’s sporting events in county-owned facilities.
County Executive Bruce Blakeman of Nassau County, New York, signed an executive order on February 22 that prohibits female sports teams with male athletes who “identify” as female on the team from competing against women’s sports teams in any county-owned facilities. The order does not apply to male sports teams with female athletes who “identify” as male.
Blakeman argued that the ban “is necessary to protect cisgender girls and women from getting hurt while playing sports,” according to NBC News. Blakeman’s county is currently facing a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union, which argues that the ban is discriminatory.
At a news conference in Mineola, NY, on March 18, Jenner expressed support of the ban.
“Trans women are competing against women, taking valuable opportunities for the long protected class under Title IX and causing physical harm,” Jenner stated, according to a video clip from the conference that Jenner reposted on X.
“The difference between men and women exists based on DNA or your chromosomes, [which] leads to our physical development, regardless of a trans person’s hormone surgeries, status in transition, there are massive advantages and undeniable differences,” Jenner continued.
Jenner competed in the 1976 Olympics and won the gold medal in the men’s decathlon. In 2015, Jenner announced that he was “transitioning” to female and would identify as “Caitlyn” Jenner, rather than Bruce. In recent years, Jenner has expressed opposition to men competing in women’s sports.
According to Associated Press News, Jenner said in the press conference that transgender men competing against women athletes will “ruin women’s sports,” adding, “Let’s stop it now while we can.”
Two days before the press conference, on March 16, Jenner posted on X:
People ask me why I am speaking out so often on this topic. It’s simple. It’s biology, it is not about exclusion or not being tolerant / accepting. Someone trans has to do it.
Men don’t belong in women’s sports. Period.
In January of 2024, Jenner wrote an op-ed for The Daily Mail expressing opposition to men competing in women’s golf tournaments. He wrote that it is unfair for women athletes to lose “one of the most highly coveted spots in women’s sports,” a place in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour, to a biological man.
“To the credit of the tour, I believe the heart of the LPGA has been in the right place,” Jenner wrote:
However, when the association voted to remove the sex assigned ‘at – birth’ requirement from their bylaws in 2010 and allow transgender persons who had undergone sexual reassignment surgery to compete they made an error.
Jenner added that the 2010 decision set the LPGA “down a slippery slope. More opportunities are likely to be taken away from women, further undermining the mission of the LPGA and casting a negative light on transgender people.”
“This is not about one person, one governing body or one sport,” Jenner wrote. “This is a simple issue of fairness… and integrity.”
