Fire Island Lesbian Volleyball Tournament Canceled Abruptly Due to Transgender Upset

The LezVolley Tournament, a favorite annual event in Cherry Grove since 2011, was abruptly canceled on Saturday afternoon, August 10, due to a controversy about a transgender player wanting to participate in the game.

The circumstances surrounding this incident were initially  unclear. FIN had one correspondent on the scene who relayed that one team refused to play with another during one of the tournament games. Referees ultimately decided in the opposing team’s favor, and organizers canceled the remainder of the tournament shortly after.

Chatter on Instagram became animated Saturday night.

“I was a player at LezVolley today; they did not let a trans man play,” wrote an individual who goes by the handle of andreitaitaaa, within a thread of a photo shared by former FIN photographer Robert Sherman posted a few days before the scheduled tournament to help promote the game. That comment was subsequently removed from the thread.

“Sounds like in a massive twist of fate, their new rules do allow trans women, but not trans masc folks?” wrote marblekassandra.

This matter comes out on the heels of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s push to ban transgender female athletes from playing on female teams for girls and women at Nassau County-owned facilities.

“We’d love to explain what happened so that you get the full picture,” wrote one of the LezVolley organizers in an email to our publication, promising a full statement.

About an hour after first publishing this article on Sunday morning, August 11, LezVolley sent us the following:

LezVolley is, and has always been for the past 14 years, a sporting event for women, and more specifically women within the queer community. This means the volleyball tournament is open to all women, female presenting and female identifying individuals, including trans women. 

On Saturday, August 10 the games got interrupted when one of teams complained that a male identifying individual was playing against them. We [the LezVolley team] asked the person to leave the court, in order to be respectful to the other teams. This decision was in no way, shape or form the result of a transphobic behavior and was misinterpreted as such. A part of the crowd became passionate, then angry, then aggressive—even violent toward us organizers. They occupied the courts, preventing the rest of the teams from playing, and refused to leave until we agreed to let their male player play. We had to make an incredibly hard decision – and we decided to stay true to what we built: a sporting event for the women community. 

The anger and aggressiveness we faced forced us to cancel the rest of the event. The bullying has been building up ever since and we cannot believe the violence of some of the feedback we have been receiving on social media where misinformation spreads so quickly. 

We have created a safe space for our LGBTQIA+ community for years and we have always given back and promoted inclusion and diversity. We support and welcome the trans community, and always have. The intention was never to offend or hurt anyone. We are devastated by how the day turned out and we apologize to all our players, supporters and visitors who were extremely disappointed, shocked, offended and scared. We have received a lot of support from the community here in Cherry Grove and are grateful for everyone who reached out. 

In no way do we discriminate nor do we condone discrimination in any form—all have been, and are welcome to attend and enjoy the event.

The dialogue remains ongoing.