They zip around the rink, armed with helmets, pads and mouthguards. They push, bump and occasionally crash out as they jostle for position on the hardwood floor.
But for the women of the Long Island Roller Rebels, their biggest battle is taking place outside the suburban strip-mall roller rink where they’re girding for the upcoming roller derby season.
The nearly 20-year-old amateur league is suing a county leader over an executive order meant to prevent women’s and girl’s leagues and teams with transgender players from using county-run parks and fields. The league’s legal effort, backed by the New York Civil Liberties Union, has thrust it into the national discussion over the rights of transgender athletes.
Amanda Urena, the league’s vice president, said there was never any question the group would take a stand.
“The whole point of derby has been to be this thing where people feel welcome,” said the 32-year-old Long Island native, who competes as “Curly Fry” and identifies as queer, at a recent practice at United Skates of America in Seaford. “We want trans women to know that we want you to come play with us, and we’ll do our very best to keep fighting and making sure that this is a safe space for you to play.”
I disagree with excluding trans individuals from sports, but I can understand that there might be some leagues that disagree with me. So if a league or a private group wants to start discriminating based on some horseshit arguments about competitive advantage, I would simply boycot that league and move on with my day. I can’t control what private groups want to do, and I can’t force them to change eligibility requirements.
This isn’t that.
What the fuck is this? There isn’t even a horseshit argument about competitive advantage here. Are they saying that trans women are going to have so much testosterone that they tear up the fields? It’s just bigotry, and it’s government sponsored bigotry. We can do something about that.
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This is where all the vitriol over trans women in sports leads. Roller derby is such a hugely queer sport, I’m so proud of them for taking a stand to defend their teammates.
I would agree to an extent. I don’t know if I would be okay with a ‘whites only’ league existing.
I wouldn’t be OK with it, but I wouldn’t have much to do about it. If it were government sponsored, I’d have a lot of things I’d be doing about it.
So you’re okay with systemic racial discrimination, so long as it’s not the government?
Yes you can. We have many laws protecting groups from discrimination. That’s why you can’t legally discriminate against people by race/ethnicity, sex/gender, or disability.
It sounds to me like you don’t respect the idea of LGBTQ+ people being part of a protected class.
It sounds to me like you’re going out of your way to selectively interpret what I said to create an argument.
I am not empowered to enforce the law, and I have no legal standing to sue for discrimination. I also can’t stop thieves or murderers, but that doesn’t mean I condone those crimes, either.
Sorry, I assumed you lived in a democratic country and were stating that there was no way anyone could ever be obligated not to discriminate. Assuming you live somewhere where you have zero ability to influence change, your original post makes more sense, and doesn’t read like a tacit endorsement of the current status quo against trans people.
I accept your apology, and all is forgiven.