"Can't be penalized"- Martina Navratilova urges Venus, Serena Williams to break silence amid controversy surrounding trans inclusion in women's sport
Martina Navratilova has been a staunch supporter of the exclusion of transgenders from women's sports. She has called upon Serena and Venus Williams, among others, to speak up on the topic.
Navratilova has pledged her support to the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) in their "Take Back Title IX" initiative. For context, Title IX was created in 1972 for the benefit of women in sports. It banned discrimination and helped them gain inclusivity at the time.
However, recently President Joe Biden's administration has been working on rewriting the Title IX law to help the inclusion of transgender women in women's sports. Navratilova, along with other influential women such as Riley Gaines, are campaigning against it. Recently, the American tennis legend was labeled 'transphobic' by a tennis journalist and she clapped back at him with fury.
Citing the report about Navratilova's interaction with the journalist, a fan on X asked other female athletes to speak out on the issue. According to the fan, female athletes who choose to remain silent have "turned their backs on the females coming up behind them."
They also mentioned Serena and Venus in their post and wrote:
"... Where are @serenawilliams [Serena Williams] or @Venuseswilliams [Venus Williams] or any high profile female athlete? Shame on all of them."
Navratilova took notice of the fan's comments and responded by urging every female athlete, current or past, to speak out on the issue. She wrote:
"Would be great to hear from not just Serena and Venus, but many others who don’t compete anymore and can’t be penalized for speaking up and speaking out."
Martina Navratilova gets into a heated conversation with tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg
Tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg claimed Martina Navratilova's inclusion in the 'Take Back Title IX' campaign was "dispiriting".
"Martina Navratilova turning this anti-trans crusade into her life's obsession in recent years remains dispiriting!" Rothenberg wrote on X.
"And she turns it into way more transphobic vitriol than just discussing sports fairness, as I've covered before, just being nasty and cruel and dehumanizing. Boo," he added.
The former World No. 1 responded and accused him of an unethical act.
"Yet another man telling women what they should care about. And who are you exactly ? Oh yeah, the reporter who tells tennis players its off the record and then prints what they said anyway...," she wrote.
Rothenberg denied ever publishing a report in such a manner. He even alleged that she was indulging in cyberbullying campaigns.
"I’ve never done that. But I care also, about someone who was a beacon of freedom and inclusion in the sport I’ve covered sadly choosing to erode the platform she built with cyberbullying campaigns aimed at obscure, low-level amateur athletes. I wish you were better than that," Rothenberg replied.
Navratilova closed out the conversation by claiming she was blocking him and that she was not using X for cyberbullying campaigns.