Tennis legend Martina Navratilova capitulates, apologizes for speaking up for female athletes
“What I really wanted to do was try to open up the debate about equality and fairness in relation to transgender participation in women’s sport.”
The social justice warriors got to Martina Navratilova. The tennis legend has apologized for speaking the truth: having transgender women competing in women sports that depend on size and strength “would be ‘cheating’ because the athletes would have an ‘unfair physical advantages.'”
The remarks led to gay rights group Athlete Ally dropping her from the advisory board and removed her title as Athlete Ally Ambassador.
Navratilova tweeted out before Christmas, “You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women. There must be some standards, and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard.” The tweet brought a firestorm and she promised to write more about it when she educated herself on transgender athletes.
She tried to make amends in an op-ed in February by explaining the science she discovered:
To put the argument at its most basic: 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. 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.
The op-ed only made things worse with Athlete Ally dropping Navratilova and bashing from people on her side.
In response, Navratilova penned an apologetic post on her website. She wrote:
What I really wanted to do was try to open up the debate about equality and fairness in relation to transgender participation in women’s sport. There were too many voices that were silenced and shamed into submission and that is not right. My aim was to encourage a more scientific, rather than emotional, conversation and to search for a solution that would work better than current arrangements.
I was motivated by concern about the future of women’s sport and my worry that by trying to be fair and inclusive for one group, others can be adversely affected, that eliminating one kind of discrimination can inadvertently give rise to another.
Well, I certainly stumbled into a hornets’ nest. The support I normally get from ‘my people’, the LGBT community, was replaced by a barrage of quite nasty personal attacks and I was dropped (jettisoned is a better word) as an ambassador for Athlete Ally.
Conversely, some publications and people that I am at odds with on most issues, such as the Washington Examiner (gasp) and James Woods (double gasp), were strongly supportive of my opinions. Those are unwelcome bedfellows. So where did I go wrong? Or did I go wrong?
I know that my use of the word ‘cheat’ caused particular offence among the transgender community. I’m sorry for that because I certainly was not suggesting that transgender athletes in general are cheats. I attached the label to a notional case in which someone cynically changes gender, perhaps temporarily, to gain a competitive advantage. We should not be blind to the possibility and some of these rules are making that possible and legal. The context may be different, but the case of Lance Armstrong, and the harm he did to his sport, is surely instructive.
EXACTLY. It’s science. The left loves to tout themselves as the party of science, but once again they remain blind to reality like they do with abortion. Navratilova expands on that:
It is obvious that men have certain inherent physiological advantages over women. These include height, weight, bone-density and muscularity. These advantages play a different role depending on the sport, with power-lifting being the biggest and most obvious advantage. Can we make sure those advantages are nullified so that women who have transitioned from men have the same level of physical capability they would have had if they been born female? Clearly, we can’t, because you cannot lose those extra inches of height (five inches on average) no matter what you do; some advantages of weight and muscle built up over time are also likely to remain, so to what acceptable degree should they disappear?
To put it into context scientifically, normal testosterone levels for men aged 19 and above range from 240 to 950 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL). For women aged 19 and above, normal testosterone levels range from eight to 60 ng/dL. So even the highest level for women is lower by a factor of four than the lowest level for men.
I doubt this issue will go away. British swimmer Sharron Davies came to Navratilova’s defense on Sunday on the BBC when she said that transgender women should not compete to “protect women’s sports” and there’s nothing transphobic about it:
Speaking to BBC Sport, Davies, 56, said she had spoken to many other female athletes who “feel the same way”.
“It is not a transphobic thing – I really want to say we have no issue with people who are transgender,” she said.
“Every single woman athlete I’ve spoken to, and I have spoken to many, all of my friends in international sports, understand and feel the same way as me.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people who are in the races [now] are in a very difficult predicament when they can’t speak out. It maybe falls to the people who were competing [in the past] who would understand the predicament that is being faced at the moment to try to create a debate, and try to explain how we feel there needs to be a fair and level playing field.”
I have no problem with transgender people. Do what you want to do, but you cannot deny the science and biology of a human being. No matter how much surgery you have or how many hormones you pump into yourself, you cannot change your sex or DNA.
This is also why I don’t like to identify with groups or parties. I am a libertarian, but I do not belong to the party. If you stray away from their thought, they will eat you. The right is just as guilty as the left.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
Wrong move, now you are just more chum for them to chew up.
The great irony is that all of that hard fought Title IX funding that was supposed to help the girls will go right back to…..the boys.
That we created a few ‘trans’ athletes seems like a steep price for the girls to pay.
Girls transitioning to Boys to play and succeed in athletics? good luck with that.
Why do no “trans-men” compete against real male athletes?
Actually, some do. They are less competitive in the men’s sports than they were in the womens’, so there is no advantage when they go in that direction.
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/outfront-harvard-swimmer-sets-example-other-transgender-athletes-n807986
What are the odds that ze would not have been recruited had ze been transitioning prior to signing scholarship papers?
On the upside, they should be able to save a lot of money on testing for performance enhancing drugs….
What difference does it make anymore?
Personally, I feel kind of bad for Navratilova; she took on the brunt of critics and prejudice when she came out at huge personal emotional and professional expense. I happened to meet her through friends of friends back in the 80’s. She was a generally classy lady and it didn’t really occur to me she was someone famous until several months later.
So, the bisexual band in the transgender spectrum has less leverage than neo-sexuals. And feminine females take a back seat to both.
game..set..match. So sad. Feminists aren’t really for women’s true rights.
Since it is impractical to have 57 different competition groups, eliminate them all and everyone competes on the same field. Same sized ball, weight of shot, etc. No set-asides on team rosters.
If that had been the case 20 years ago we would not know Martin from Eve.
Has anyone had the guts to have an “all girl” police force or fire department? It should be tried, “in the interest of science” but nowhere near me, thank you.
It is a sad commentary on the times to see truth being deemed unspeakable.
Damn! …*Martina*…
The more they talk about this subject, the more they get confused. Suggestion: When all else fails try common sense. Of course, that may not be an option, because it leads them to a conclusion which is counter to their quasi-religion. And if that happens, they may lose their cottage industry of rendering all these ridiculous pronouncements and condemnations, all paid for by some governmental agency, non-profit or university that actually employs these sanctimonious loons.
Hacker!
I’ve said it for years.
All this bullshit about ‘respect’ is just the left trying to use your principles against you.
This isn’t about respect. This is about them DEMANDING that you speak what you know is not true.
“it will never be known what acts of cowardice have been motivated by the fear of not looking sufficiently progressive.”
-Charles Péguy-
Today’s liberal is essentially insane. They are hell bent upon changing reality to reflect their own beliefs of what it should be. However, reality is uninteresting in conforming to the desires of humanity.
Sports, which are based upon or incorporate strength to any significant degree, quickly incorporate classes of competitors. The most common class is based on physical gender. Designed to fill different niches, males and females generally exhibit different physical structures. Most commonly, women, in addition to being physically smaller and lighter, also have far less upper body musculature. This makes them weaker then men, even men of comparable size. So, to make competition roughly equal, men and women are segregated in competition. However, within certain single gender sports, there are additional classes, usually based upon weight. In fighting sports, such as boxing, it is almost impossible for a feather or flyweight contender to compete with heavyweights, one-on-one. Even lightweight contenders will usually fail, based upon size and strength alone.
A male who actually physically transgenders to a female, still retains most of his male musculature, even after hormone treatments. He will lose some muscle mass, due to testosterone deficiency, but not a significant amount. He does not complete a total physical transformation to a female physique. It is even worse, if the male to female transgender has not completed, or even begun, physical transformation. In these case, what you have is simply a physical male claiming to believe he is a female.
Now, if a man KNOWS that he is a male and only FEELS uncomfortable in the role of a man and prefers the role of a woman, there should be no problem. He should know that, because of his physical gender, he can not legally compete, in a strength sport, as a female. So, being a responsible member of society, this man will not even attempt to compete. If he would seek to compete in that sport he would do so as a feminine male. If he believes that he is a physical female while being an obviously physical male, he is delusional and needs psychiatric treatment.
Just watch mixed doubles tennis competition. Then change on to men’s pair again mixed.. and let the slaughter begin.
We need a new category of mixed singles for transgender men.
We need to reopen the insane asylums.
They are hell bent upon changing reality to reflect their own beliefs of what it should be.
Trouble is, their beliefs are as fluid as their ever changing, growing list of bizarre identities, each competing to ascend the hierarchy of victimised oppressed and all the better, to intersect in some epic Rainbow delusion of multiplicity.
Reality is inconveniently populated by immutable constructs.
This is why their evolutionary destiny is reassuringly a biological and social dead-end.
Before long the 15 best male basketball players at Duke will be the men’s team and the second 15 best male basketball players at Duke will be the “women’s team.”
The more I see of these left wing “outrage addicts”, the more I am convinced:
Never apologize. It only encourages them in their next crusade, and gets you no love from the fanatics.
And you look like a coward.
Bingo! The left cannot be appeased any more than Hitler was appeased by Chamberlain. Give them and inch and they will take the mile. They will demand not only tolerance, but total acquiescence and endorsement of their vile doctrine.
Why can’t a 20-year-old man “identify” as 15 and sweep the competition in the junior categories? (Actually this happened in Sweden, where adult immigrants routinely claim to be minors in order to get in easier, and several have had the chutzpah to then compete athletically against actual teenagers.)
You know the worst part is that someone will say you’re being ridiculous, hyperbole much, and then it’ll happen and those same folks will ask you why you have a problem with it.
In the olden days, we had a term for male-to-female transgender athletes: East German.
Here’s a video of what all women’s Olympic teams will look like if they allow men to declare themselves to be transgender women.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFgZXL3tL1A
Well, I was at the pool today and at one point in the locker room looked up to see a woman standing there. I said in my distinctive sarcastic tone (apologies to Jack O’Neill, two l’s), “you are here, why?” She said, pointing to the person near me “I am his caretaker and the family changing rooms were all filled.” I quickly decided that I would be more successful arguing with a stump, but I still haven’t decided whether to let it go. She made zero announcement of her presence or desire to enter the space. I guess that I am just annoyed at the sense of entitlement that she enjoyed, fully knowing that if the situation were reversed, the po-po would be there in 5 secs (precinct is actually across the street).
Martina, Martina, Martina….
Just when you were showing character.
Psychosexually disoriented, medically mutilated males will never be women no matter how much propaganda is spewed
Not only have they decided that women are unimportant in sports but they will inject the lowest common denominator of cheaters and losers into women’s sports!
Brilliant!
I almost feel sorry for her but, if you choose these people as your support group and employer then don’t be surprised when they turn on you.
Why would she inject Lance Armstrong into the conversation. We can argue about Armstrong being a cheater or not but his sin was not testosterone, it was EPO and blood doping.
I was wondering the same thing about bringing Lance Armstrong into the conversation. For one thing it is not readily apparent that he did anything more than everyone else was doing. It appeared more of a witch hunt to bring him down because he was american than anything else. Second he actually did more to increase the popularity of his sport in the US than anyone.
Still the greatest moment in cycling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdMdJAdzpYQ
When you bend the knee they own you.
Never bend the knee.
oh come on Martina…..MAN UP!
This is an easy fix…
Men’s Sports
Women’s Sports
Other Gender Sports
Let all the mentally unstable compete against each other.
Not too long ago there was a spat at my country club when two lesbians signed up for the husband/wife tournament and were told one of them would have to play from the men’s tees as did every other team. The event was actually canceled.