#Nassau county

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Kelly Betts

People can’t see my disability from the outside. I worry that in this current political climate and with the new law, it may not end at the comments and harassment I already face.

On Thursday, officials in Nassau County, New York, where I live, signed a mask ban into law, one of the first of its kind in the country. And while to most healthy adults it doesn’t mean much, to those with serious health conditions, like me, it makes getting out into the world a lot harder.

The ban was touted by lawmakers as a public safety measure after reported antisemitic incidents and protests at various New York universities, many involving people wearing masks. Those who violate the new law face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. And while there are exemptions for people with religious and medical reasons, it’s not dealing with the law that I’m afraid of. It’s dealing with the “citizen cops” of the world who will be using their discretion to enforce it.

I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in February 2023. It’s a fast-growing type of blood cancer. I underwent more than five rounds of chemotherapy, and the following July, thanks to an amazingly generous donor, I had a stem cell transplant, something I knew nothing about until I got sick. I was given some of the most powerful chemotherapies to kill my old immune system and any remaining cancer cells. Then I was given my donor’s stem cells to help build a brand-new immune system.

There are a lot of risks that come along with the transplant, especially in the early stages as the stem cells are engrafting and you have no immune system. The first 100 days are the riskiest, and you must watch everything from what you eat to how it’s prepared, and most of all the people around you. Your body is starting from scratch, so you have almost no immunities. Any vaccinations you’ve had over your lifetime have been wiped out. For the last year since my transplant, my immune system has slowly been getting stronger. But building a new immune system takes years, and I have a long way to go. So, wearing my face mask whenever I go out is essential.

That brings me back to the new law. I wear a medic alert bracelet and would hope that showing it to the police, should it ever become an issue, would be enough. But that’s not guaranteed, because anyone can just order one. Would I be forced to show up in court to prove my medical condition to a judge? And what cost and time could that take, all to protect my health? And what about my family or people who act as caregivers, who don’t technically have medical conditions of their own, but still wear masks to protect me? Would there be an exemption for them?

Most of all, I worry about those who have strong feelings against masks. As we know, many people read headlines and not always the full story. And just reading most of the headlines, all someone will know is that there’s a mask ban in Nassau County. Even at the height of my illness, with no hair and really looking like I had cancer, I still got comments like “Covid is over” or “that’s not protecting you.” And while the few comments hurt, especially while I was battling for my life, I could shake them off. I had a bigger fight ahead of me.

Now, healthier with hair again and 43 years old, the comments continue. But I worry that in this current political climate and with the new law, it may not end at that. People can’t see my disability from the outside. It’s been hard to get back out in the world, as many can relate to after going through a global pandemic. Even being as careful as I am and just starting to let my guard down a little in outdoor settings, I caught Covid. And it took my body and immune system down hard. Luckily, I’m recovering and back to wearing my mask diligently, even outdoors.

I want to be able to return to my normal life. And go out with friends, see a Broadway show, and one day get back to my office in the city. But now with New York City considering passing its own mask ban, I don’t know when I would feel safe enough to do that. Is this law really protecting the masses?

[arctic-hands]

Now that the Nassau County/ Long Island facemask ban is in effect, officials are claiming people with legitimate health issues are exempt from the penalty. How the fuck are they going to exempt that? Every time an immunocompromised person in NC goes out they're at risk for constant harassment by police and brutalization by pigs on a power trip.

Elijah McClain had a legitimate health issue to wear a ski mask that night in 2019. He had a blood circulation disorder and any hint of chill–even on that August night–caused him discomfort. But because he was a young Black man doing something ever-so-slightly abnormal as wearing a mask with a legitimate medical issue, he was murdered by cops AND paramedics.

This law is a eugenicist nightmare on top of the eugenics nightmare that has been the United States response to the covid pandemic. Medically vulnerable people in Nassau County will be forced to expose themselves to contagious and life-threatening diseases under threat of brutalization and a year in prison. Medically vulnerable Black people will be at even greater risk, as they always are.

This law is cruel, but when has the American legal system ever been about mercy?

[chronicandironic]

Id: UPDATE: Nassau County mask ban passes the public safety committee meeting, 4 in favor, 3 abstentions. It will now go to the full session of the legislature for consideration on August 5th.

The public safety committee members who abstained in the Nassau County mask ban vote said they noted the public objections to the bill and that they need work more on the language. It still passed anyway.

NoNYMaskBan

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Jones Beach, in Nassau County not far from the city limits, has always been a popular escape for New Yorkers. Here is the 6.5 mile beach on July 4, 1952. At the right is the Jones Beach Theater.

Photo: Speed Hanzlik for the AP

[liminalweirdo]

A New York county banned face masks in public. Disabled people are suing.

Nassau County passed a law this month that bans people from wearing face masks in public. Violators could face up to $1,000 in fines or jail time.

The statute breaches the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act and New York law by depriving disabled people “of equal access to public life in Nassau County,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that the exceptions for medical and religious purposes are too vague. Advocacy group Disability Rights New York filed the suit in Eastern District Court of New York on Thursday, asking the court to strike down the law on behalf of two anonymous immunocompromised plaintiffs and fellow disabled people.

“This mask ban poses a direct threat to public health and discriminates against people with disabilities,” Timothy Clune, executive director of Disability Rights New York, said in a statement. “Nassau County’s mask ban puts lives at risk. While worrying about their health and the well-being of their family members, those who need to wear a mask will have the added fear of discrimination, arrest, fines, and detainment.”

[callese]

Source

[gwydionmisha]

The overt purpose is to curtail 1st amendment rights such as free speech and assembly which is horrific and wrong, but I suspect they consider the Eugenacist effect to be a feature, not a bug.

Yes, I know there is supposedly a medical exemption, but how are people going to prove to police they are disabled enough to deserve exemption? Do you trust police to not blanket arrest disabled people if they want to? because I don't. do you think disabled people should have to present papers whenever they are in public? Because that's fucking distopian.

Also, I think people should have a right to mask so as not to become disabled from long COVID or risk spreading contagious diseases to lest robust friends and family.

The war on Freedom continues: The battle against free speech, free assembly, the right to descent, public health, and against disabled people and those who care about them simply existing in public spaces.

[rebelwheelssoapbox]

This art piece was made a day before the mask ban was approved in Nassau County. That said, we can still (and must) fight the proposed New York Statewide mask ban bill! https://covidadvocacyny.org/stopmaskbanny . You don't have to be in New York to fight this. "Health Exception, Cop's Discretion" There's a health exception in the proposed Nassau County mask ban bill, but cops can also require you to lower your mask as they see fit. What could go wrong? TAKE ACTION: @covidadvocacyny & @jews4maskrights

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: (edited to fit on twitter) collage. Background. layered various florals. pinks reds & oranges. more faded on right. next layer. Left. glam queer person. fake fur leopard print coat draped off shoulders. bejeweled brooch silver & teal green. blue & purple button yellow green text: not all disabilities are visible. black thin strapped tank top. off the shoulder gold glitter top. black & green zigzag pattern small red flower finger-less glove. heart-shaped rainbow ring. Holding a rose. Shoulder length black hair behind one ear. red & pink flower with 2 pearl strands . black covid mask. thick wavy white lines. blue green glitter eye makeup. Looking @ militarized cops on right. “Nassau” is on cop's shoulder. queer person: “but the health exception” font. white & modern. each word black rectangle behind. Behind text. red with pink border ! & ?'s. cops: “lower your mask” “my discretion” in response to health exception. Lower right hand corner. faded white @ rebel Wheels NYC ]

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

The leader of a New York City suburb is recruiting 75 armed citizens, many of them former police officers, for a force of “special deputies” to be activated whenever he chooses.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who has allied himself with former President Donald J. Trump and thrust himself into the culture wars, posted a call in March for residents with gun permits and an interest in becoming “provisional emergency special deputy sheriffs.”

Yes, dumbshits at the New York Times. It's a fascist militia, composed of ex-cops and military, on Long Island (a stone's throw from NYC). That's why the workers and oppressed need our own.

[coochiequeens]

Nassau County will ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls sports at local facilities.

County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced the executive order, which will go into effect immediately, at a press conference on Thursday, Feb. 22.

The order applies only to female competitive sports, not co-ed or male sports. It will prevent transgender women from participating in women’s sports at all county-run facilities.

"This is not precluding anybody from participating in sports," said Blakeman. "What it is, it's identifying that there are women and girls who spend a tremendous amount of time and effort to excel and compete in their sports that are women's sports.”

Further calling the allowing of transgender women in women’s sports “bullying,” Blakeman said that “it’s a situation of fairness…it is an unfair advantage for someone who is a biological male to compete against a biological female."

He was joined by District 18 Legislator Samantha Goetz and Kim Russell, a former women's lacrosse coach at Ohio's Oberlin College who said she was terminated after speaking out against transgender athletes participating in women's sports.  

New York LGBT Network President Dr. David Kilmnick condemned the move in a statement released shortly after the announcement.

“We are profoundly disappointed in Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s announcement of an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from participating in sports teams that align with their gender identity.”

Calling the order “deeply alarming,” Kilmnick said that it “not only undermines the principles of inclusivity and fairness but also perpetuates harmful stereotypes and exclusion.”

Blakeman said he did not know how many transgender athletes there are in Nassau County, but cited that between half a percent and one percent of all residents in the county identify as transgender.

[covid-safer-hotties]

They're Coming for Your Mask: A Survey on Discrimination

Published in late June, but ringing especially true given yesterday's successful mask ban in Nassau County, NY.

It's already happening.

When the state of North Carolina first proposed a mask ban this year, advocates from across the country warned lawmakers that it would embolden anti-maskers and lead to a surge in harassment and assault. Days after it passed, a woman with stage 4 cancer was assaulted by a man for wearing a mask. He told her wearing a mask was illegal. When she tried to explain her medical condition, he cussed her out and then started coughing on her.

He told her he hoped she died.

More recently, Nassau County in New York passed an even more draconian mask ban, threatening anyone with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail. Like the NC ban, this bill makes a blanket declaration, giving law enforcement broad discretion and putting the burden of proof on individuals. Under these types of bills, it's entirely possible for police officers or even ordinary citizens to abuse the laws, forcing people to unmask even if they're just trying to avoid infection.

At a Chicago airport, an infectious disease expert was denied service at a restaurant for trying to enter with a mask. When she asked why, the staff simply repeated, "It's the policy."

She was told to leave.

There's one point continually missed by mainstream coverage of these mask bans. Politicians keep saying nothing has changed, but they're lying. Under the new law in NC, for example, anyone who considers themselves an "occupant of public property" can demand someone remove their mask for identification. In the bill's exact words, anyone wearing a mask for health reasons "shall remove the mask upon request by a law enforcement officer or temporarily remove the mask upon request by the owner or occupant of public or private property where the wearer is present to allow for identification of the wearer."

This intentionally vague language allows virtually anyone to take it upon themselves to "request" someone "temporarily" remove their mask for identification. If they don't, they're breaking the law and they can be arrested, even charged with a felony. Maybe that sounds like a compromise to someone who doesn't understand viral transmission.

It's not a compromise at all.

Read the rest at the link!

[justinssportscorner]

John Russell at LGBTQ Nation:

A New York judge overturned a Long Island county’s ban on trans women and girls participating in women’s and girls’ sports.

As the Associated Press reported, on Friday Judge Francis Ricigliano ruled that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman (R) “acted beyond the scope of his authority” when he issued his February 22 executive order banning the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Museums from issuing permits to women’s and girls’ sports teams that include transgender athletes. The executive order would have affected 100 athletic facilities and would have been a de facto ban on trans women and girls participating in recreational sports in the county. Ricigliano’s decision is the result of a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels, a Nassau County-based women’s roller derby league, challenging Blakeman’s executive order. Citing New York’s Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and guidance from the state Division of Human Rights, the league argued in its lawsuit that Blakeman’s order constituted discrimination based on gender identity, which is explicitly prohibited in the state. However, the judge’s ruling focused only on Blakeman’s authority as county executive to issue the anti-trans order.  

Glad to see Nassau County’s bigoted ban on trans women playing in women’s sports struck down.

[odinsblog]

A report finds that half of the 1,700 people on the Nassau County Police Department gang database have no criminal history, and nearly a quarter of the people were on the list "without a clear rationale".

A list of suspected gang members managed by the Nassau County Police Department includes people with little to no explanation or vague justifications, according to a report released Tuesday by a civil rights group.

The LatinoJustice report, which was shared with WSHU and Gothamist, finds that half of the 1,700 people on the gang database have no criminal history and nearly a quarter of the people were on the list without a clear rationale.

LatinoJustice obtained a redacted version of the list from the Freeport Police Department through a public records request.

Advocates warn that having your name on such a list could have a reverberating effect on the individuals, leading to deportation and less lenient sentences in the event of a future arrest.

“This is a practice of criminalizing Latinos and African Americans for their appearance, who they associate with, and where they live,” said Meena Roldán Oberdick, a lawyer at LatinoJustice, who authored the report. “There's no other way to describe this other than racial profiling.”

The Freeport gang database does not include any white supremacists groups and only three members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, according to the report.

(continue reading)

[tomorrowusa]

Democrats pick up House seat in special election in NY-03!

I ❤️ NY-03!

Democrats have not won a major election in suburban Nassau County since Biden took the area in 2020. NY-03 is mostly in Nassau County and was famously won by Republican fabulist George Santos in 2022. It was Santos's ouster from the House which led to this special election.

So Democrat Tom Suozzi easily defeated his GOP opponent Mazi Pilip on Tuesday by a margin similar to Biden's win in 2020.

Republicans sought to use immigration against Democrats in this election – and failed.

William Kristol and Andrew Egger observed at The Bulwark:

Republicans pummeled Suozzi on immigration with waves of hyperbolic border-invasion ads. But in his three terms in Congress Suozzi had been, for a Democrat, something of a border hawk. And he had plenty of money to portray himself as that. Indeed, he did so aggressively. When Republicans in Congress torpedoed the border bill, Suozzi attacked them for doing so and lamented that it would not now be able to expel “eighty percent” of asylum seekers and to stop migrants from flooding New York.

Yep, Republicans have been demanding border reform. When a viable bipartisan plan became a possibility in the US Senate, they shot it down on orders from adjudicated sex offender Donald Trump.

So now we have a Republican border crisis which Trump hopes will catapult his demented self back into the White House. But indications from NY-03 are that it probably won't work out for them.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut was one of the senators who worked on the Senate bipartisan immigration reform which Trump sabotaged. Murphy sees the MAGA GOP flip-flop on the border as something which can be used against Republicans nationally.

Sen. Chris Murphy urges Democrats to follow Tom Suozzi and go on the offensive on the border

“Suozzi messaged aggressively on the issue, running ads that highlighted his support for a secure border and legal pathways to citizenship,” Murphy wrote. “He flipped the script on his Republican opponent, successfully painting her as unserious about border security because of her opposition to the bipartisan border bill, and turned what could have been a devastating political liability into an advantage.” Murphy acknowledged his frustration that after months of negotiating the bipartisan border security bill, Republicans in the Senate ultimately knifed it in a matter of days. But he said the GOP’s rejection of the bill provides Democrats with a way to counter GOP talking points on the border.

Back in NY-03, some Republican apologists tried to blame the 7.8% defeat of their candidate on the weather. The official NWS weather station at La Guardia Airport in Queens, next to NY-03, reported a grand total of 3.3 inches [8.38 cm] of snow on Tuesday. And the snow was over by 3 PM. In New York, polls are open until 9 PM. There was plenty of time for Republicans to sweep away the minor amount of snow from their sidewalks and get to their polling places. Don't let the GOP give you a snow job about their loss of a swing district.

Anyway, with the victory of Tom Suozzi, Republicans are one step closer to losing their majority under Speaker "MAGA Mike" Johnson.