ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Republican state senators continued to lobby for more government restrictions on who can play girls’ sports on Thursday, demanding more from Gov. Kathy Hochul in a letter. Citing safety concerns and fairness issues, they met with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman—a potential Republican candidate for governor of New York in 2026—to advocate for a full ban on transgender girls on school teams.

The push follows President Donald Trump’s February executive order—”Keeping men out of women’s sports”—directing federal agencies to cut funding from schools that accept transgender girl players, to whom Republicans consistently refer as biological males. They also consistently referred to Siena polls showing that most New Yorkers want high school athletes to compete among players who share their biological sex.

Twenty-one Republican state senators signed a letter—available to read at the bottom of this story—to Hochul, telling her to comply with Trump’s order defunding schools that let trans girls on girls’ teams or in girls’ locker rooms. That order also directed agencies to pressure professional sports organizations to enact similar restrictions.

And the letter also expressed “deep concern” that New York State Public High School Athletic Association Executive Director Robert Zayas told schools not to exclude transgender girls. It also criticized the Saratoga Springs City School District for approving a trans-inclusive policy as “in direct contradiction to the executive order.”

The lawmakers promoted two short, separate bills banning seventh through twelfth graders assigned male at birth—or AMAB students, as opposed to AFAB students assigned female at birth—from joining female athletic teams. Neither would affect elementary or college competitions, which fall under different regulations.

S4496/A7741, introduced by State Senator Alexis Weik and Assemblymember Andrea Bailey, would directly prohibit AMAB students from joining athletic teams “expressly designated solely for female athletes” in both public and private schools. S460/A8239, from State Senator Steve Rhoads and Assemblymember John Mikulin, meanwhile, would prevent the Commissioner of the New York State Education Department from stopping any individual districts from banning trans girls from girls’ sports.

Weik, a personal trainer, argued that testosterone gives male athletes obvious, insurmountable physical advantages. She pointed to Olympic records and athletic achievements as evidence that biological males consistently outperform biological females in sports.

“When we allow biological males to compete in women’s sports, we are discriminating against women,” Weik said on Thursday. “It’s taking away opportunities for women and replacing it with more opportunities for males.”

While the senators referred to national incidents to bolster their safety concerns, none were within New York. They maintained that their legislation was based on science rather than transphobia, arguing that biological facts are not untruthful or discriminatory. Even so, they did not determine any specific testosterone threshold, method for easily and accurately determining a student’s biological sex, or avenue that would let trans students play sports at school.

When asked about creating separate categories or accommodations, Weik said those conversations “haven’t happened at this point” and that developing inclusive options would be left to individual school districts and communities. Nor has the state provided any specific data on how many transgender students currently participate in girls’ sports across New York schools.

In February, the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute estimated that about 122,000 transgender youth aged 13-17 participate in high school sports nationally, based on data showing 40.7% of transgender high school students play on at least one sports team. In New York, approximately 182,400 transgender youth aged 13-17 live in the state, which currently has no explicit ban on transgender sports participation. Nationally, NCAA President Charlie Baker testified in December that under 10 transgender athletes compete among over 500,000 total student athletes at the college level.

Blakeman, who joined the Republicans for a Thursday press conference, described transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports as “bullies” and commanded biological males to stop competing against females. Last year, he issued an executive order banning trans athletes from girls’ teams at county facilities, which the Nassau County Legislature later codified into law.

Research shows that playing sports correlates with higher self-esteem, lower depression levels, and a better sense of belonging among LGBTQ students. And studies have found that trans kids who play sports have better grades and less psychological distress.

The Williams Institute analysis said that “current evidence does not suggest there is a categorical athletic advantage for transgender female athletes when compared with cisgender female athletes.” Even so, their report noted that data on transgender athletic performance remains limited. Either way, New York State does currently let its transgender students play in sports on whichever team matches their gender identity.

NYSED issued a statement in February denouncing Trump’s executive orders as “antithetical” to educational tradition and “ineffective” because presidents cannot selectively enforce laws. “The Board and the Department remain committed to the inherent dignity and worth of every child,” the statement read. “As such, we denounce the intolerant rhetoric of these orders.”

What’s more, New Yorkers voted on Proposition 1 back in November 2024, deciding to add protections against discrimination based on gender identity or gender expression to the state constitution. Some trans rights advocates theorized that the amendment would protect transgender athletes from exclusion from sports teams; skeptics argued it would force biological men into sacred spaces meant for girls.

With one week remaining in the legislative session, Republican senators face significant obstacles to passing their bills with Democrats controlling both chambers of the legislature. Rhoads said his bill could be brought to the floor immediately since it passed committee, but that would require Democratic leadership to schedule it.

The senators plan to continue trying to defend girls’ sports if the legislation doesn’t advance this session, framing it as a moral imperative under Title IX, the 1972 federal law guaranteeing equal opportunities in education. Legal challenges to similar bans in other states have produced mixed results. Some federal courts have ruled that excluding transgender girls violates Title IX protections against sex discrimination, while others have found that including them violates the same law by disadvantaging cisgender girls.

Take a look at the letter below:

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