Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has been dropped as an ambassador for an LGBTQ campaign group over her comments on transgender athletes in women’s sport.
In an article for the Sunday Times over the weekend, the nine-time Wimbledon champion said it was "insane" to allow transgender athletes who transition from male to female to compete in women’s sport.
"A man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organisation is concerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies if he so desires," she wrote.
“It’s insane and it’s cheating. I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her.
“It would not be fair.”
She said there are hundreds of athletes that have “achieved honours as women that were beyond their capabilities as men.”
Julia Lemigova (right) and Martina Navratilova (left) on day twelve of the Wimbledon Championships, 19-06-2016. Image: John Walton/PA Archive/PA Images"Transphobic"
In a statement on its website, LGBTQ campaign group said it had removed Navratilova from its advisory board and dropped her as an ambassador “effective immediately.”
“Martina Navratilova’s recent comments on trans athletes are transphobic, based on a false understanding of science and data, and perpetuate dangerous myths that lead to the ongoing targeting of trans people through discriminatory laws, hateful stereotypes and disproportionate violence,” it said.
Noting that Navratilova referred to Trans women as men who “decide to be female,” the group said that “trans women are women, period.”
“They did not decide their gender identity any more than someone decides to be gay, or to have blue eyes,” it said.
“There is no evidence at all that the average trans woman is any bigger, stronger, or faster than the average cisgender woman - but there is evidence that often when athletes lower testosterone through hormone replacement therapy, performance goes down.
“The Trans community is under attack, and we firmly stand opposed to any and all people who perpetuate attacks against them—regardless of who they are or their accolades.”
Navratilova
Navratilova, who won 18 Grand Slam titles over a glittering career, came out as gay in the 1980s and has been campaigning for gay rights ever since.
She joined Athlete Ally as an ambassador in 2014.
We’re pretty devastated to discover that Martina Navratilova is transphobic. If trans women had an advantage in sport, why aren’t trans women winning gold medals left, right & centre? Coz trans women don’t have an advantage. Look up the changes that oestrogen makes to the body.
— Trans Actual (@TransActualUK) February 17, 2019
Trans athletes
The 62-year-old previously came under fire after tweeting in December that transgender women should not be able to compete in women's sport.
“There must be some standards, and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard,” she said.
In her Sunday Times article, she said she spent the following months keeping quiet and researching the topic.
“Well, I’ve now done that and, if anything, my views have strengthened,” she wrote.
Under guidelines introduced by the International Olympic Committee in 2016, athletes transitioning from female to male are allowed to participate in events without restrictions.
However athletes transitioning from male to female must keep their levels below a certain threshold for at least a year.
