Martina Navratilova believes that transgender individuals who have experienced all or part of male puberty have an unfair advantage in women’s sports. After President Joe Biden signed the Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation on January 20, designed to allow equal transgender participation in school sports, the tennis legend asked for a special provision to be made for elite sport.
The 18-time Grand Slam singles champion Navratilova is urging for a separate provision from the executive order to limit the participation of biological boys and men who identify as females in women’s sport, explaining that their absolute equality would endanger the future of women’s competition.
While Navratilova insists that she support equal rights, her goal is to protect biological female athletes from unfair competition against physically superior transgender women competitors who had gone through male puberty. The tennis legend is part of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group and they strive to create a “science-based, ethical approach” to “establish a middle ground that both protects girls’ and women’s sport and accommodates transgender athletes.”
When it comes to professional tennis, according to the current WTA Gender Participation Policy, a player who transitions from male to female is eligible to compete on the tour, but there are some conditions that have to be met. Most importantly, the player’s total testosterone level in serum must have been below 10 nmol/L for at least twelve months prior to her first WTA event and it must remain in that range throughout the period of desired eligibility to enter into and participate in any WTA tournament. (source: ESPN, photo: Jimmie48)
Good for you, Martina.
Wait, Martina was 3-0 against Renee Richards. So who had the advantage?
This is such a difficult issue. The transgender women want to be treated and compete as women but the reality is that they are physically not the same as women and will never be. Particularly if they have gone through male puberty as Martina says. But no doubt she will get shot down in flames for saying it.