Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is pledging a sweeping statewide ban on transgender students in girls’ school bathrooms and locker rooms if he’s elected New York’s governor in November, The Post has learned.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate told the newspaper his “Protect Our Daughters” plan would also prohibit biological males who transition to female from rooming with girls on overnight school trips.
The move is in response to the state Department of Education — with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s blessing — blocking similar restrictions approved by local school boards on parts of Long Island.
“Kathy Hochul has shown time and again that she would rather satisfy a political agenda than protect our daughters’ safety, privacy, and dignity,” Blakeman said.
“That ends on Day 1 when I am Governor, and I enact the ‘Protect Our Daughters’ Initiative to keep biological men out of girls’ sports and bathrooms.”
Blakeman – who in 2024 issued a first-of-its-kind executive order barring transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports on Nassau County-run properties – said his plan would create statewide standards reserving girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations exclusively for biological females.
Blakeman’s reps said the pledge applies to public school students from kindergarten through 12th grade statewide.
They failed to specify how he’d enforce such a measure, but Albany sources said it would be an uphill battle as he’d likely have to convince the far-left state Legislature, which also controls the Department of Education, to back the plan.
The Education Department last year struck down rules enacted by school boards in Locust Valley and Massapequa that prohibited transgender students from using locker rooms and restrooms aligned with their gender identity.
Blakeman said his initiative would protect local school boards from such state overreach and bar Albany legislators from stripping funds or issuing other sanctions against districts who want to keep transgender students out of female sports.
“Kathy Hochul fought us every step of the way when we acted to save girls’ sports in Nassau County, and she is taking that same fight into our schools’ locker rooms and bathrooms,” Blakeman said.
“Protecting girls’ sports was the first step. Ensuring their privacy in school bathrooms, locker rooms, and on overnight field trips is the next. The Protect Our Daughters initiative will take these common-sense safeguards statewide and make them permanent.”
Hochul reps did not to respond to requests for comment, but state Democratic Party spokesperson Addison Dick ripped Blakeman’s plan.
“Instead of fighting for New Yorkers and putting money back in their pockets, Bruce Blakeman is playing from an old Trump playbook and palling around with extremists to get attention for his failing campaign,” he said.
A Siena College poll released Sept. 26 showed Blakeman trailing Hochul by 9 points in the gubernatorial race, a significantly smaller lead than Hochul had on then-GOP candidate Lee Zeldin at the same time in 2022.
Almost three-quarters of Americans don’t want trans women competing against female athletes in sporting events, and vice versa — with both Republicans and Democrats united on the issue, an analysis from Pew Research Center released two months ago found.
