A group of elected Democrats released a letter on Monday attacking New York City parents for their “hateful” criticism of the city education department’s transgender sports policy.
Back in March, a parent advisory council representing one of Manhattan’s largest public school districts passed a resolution calling for a “comprehensive review” of the city’s policy allowing trans-identifying students to play on a team of the opposite sex.
The parent council for District 2, which includes the West Village, Hell’s Kitchen, and the Upper East Side, said the 2019 transgender sports policies “present challenges to youth athletes and coaches.”
In its non-binding resolution, the parent council called on New York City’s public school district to “immediately convene” a review committee that includes parents, female athletes, coaches, and “relevant medical professionals and evolutionary biology experts.”
The city education department already plans to reject the resolution and does not intend to change the transgender sports policy, education department officials have said.
The group of 18 New York Democrats attacked the parent council for the “hateful, discriminatory and actively harmful” resolution and demanded it be formally rescinded.
NYC Schools should be a safe space for trans youth– which is why I’m joining fellow Manhattan elected officials in calling on CECD2 to rescind resolution #248 to send a clear message that trans students are welcome in our schools. pic.twitter.com/XpJTFGj1Lp
— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) May 20, 2024
“Though some of you undoubtedly think that this resolution was ‘simply asking for a conversation,’ in reality that conversation was based in anti-LBGTQ+ rhetoric that is spreading in our country, state, city, and school districts, and the impact is heartbreaking,” the letter read. “While this resolution will not result in a change in education policy, the message to trans students that they are not welcome has reverberations, and the consequences can be dire.”
Democrats who signed the letter include Rep. Jerry Nadler, Assemblyman Tony Simone, State Senators Liz Krueger and Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and five City Council members.
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“Our school system must stand for justice and equity, not bigotry and hate,” the Democrats wrote. “Our community education councils must be fighting for every student, not attack, ridicule, or marginalize the vulnerable. We stand firmly in support of trans people everywhere, and urge that the CEC does the same.”
Other parent school advisory boards in the city have expressed similar concerns with the transgender sports policy, and in some cases, the debate has gotten extremely heated.
Earlier this month, the Manhattan borough president said he is ousting one member of a different community board for supporting the parent council’s resolution.
Notably, more than half of New York Democrats, 52% support requiring high school athletes to “only compete with others of the same sex that they were assigned at birth,” according to a Siena College poll last month.
About two-thirds of New York voters overall said the same.
