Simply put, Martina Navratilova is a transphobe or transphobic. I do not use either term lightly. They are very appropriate if we are to take the op-ed that she wrote for the Sunday Times on February 17, 2019 as reflecting her feeling about transwomen athletes and transwomen, more generally. What else does one think when she suggests that men simply “proclaim” themselves women and that these “declaration[s]” are done with the explicit intent to cheat within professional sport.
Martina Navratilova pointing to nowhere
I am not sure who asked Martina, the 18-time tennis singles major winner to weigh in on this subject but she took it upon herself to throw all her weight as well as every single archaic, ultra conservative stone she could find on the scale. Apparently she felt compelled to pick up this burden for the people in the “closet” (she literally used this word) about their own trans-phobia. As I read the piece, I could hardly believe that it was written by a lesbian who had herself faced so much vicious backlash when it was confirmed publicly that she had zero sexual interest in men. One would have imagined that she would have some modicum of sympathy, of informed understanding, and of a nuanced perspective on the trans community as they are both struggling for full recognition of their humanity and universal rights. In actuality, Martina decided to show that she could be just as cruel if not more inflammatory as those who despise all of the LGBTQI family.
The LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer and Intersex) community like all groups is not a united front nor a monolith. There are many intersections in terms of the non-participation in the hetero-normative paradigm. Thus, this group is subjected to biases by race, class sexuality and gender identification. It should come as no surprise that it is often white privileged lesbian and gay members who are at the forefront of the political arena and given agency to speak to their experiences. In contrast, queer folks of colour, particularly in the trans community, who lead the charge in most grassroots activism are often marginalized and made invisible by dominant culture including the dominant gay culture; that is to say white patriarchy. It is for this reason that Martina’s false and dangerous framing of the issues with transathletes is so problematic.
Having allegedly “properly researched” the subject, Martina then presents the notion that “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.” For what I can only imagine is for shits, giggles and pure spite she adds, “I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her.”
Martina offers not one single source of evidence that she did any sort of research or careful thinking on the subject at hand to arrive at this conclusion. She cites no study, points to no leading scientist, quotes not even a single quack doctor or even lists any testimonies from any of the “victims” of the “cheating”. In fact, she almost entirely ignores any real acknowledgment of sports governing bodies’ rules and regulations pertaining to transathletes. It was almost as if she called up Peggy Court, another problematic tennis legend, for some of her reckless quotes as they both work best with non-empirical source materials.
Throwback Martina when her body and being were “controversial”
I should say here that Martina being a lesbian or an amazing friend to others or a legendary athlete does not make her opinion on this subject beyond reproach. Many have given her a pass as well as defended her based solely on her resume and history of being discriminated against. Some have even used their proximity to her ie “I have known her for years and she is not what you say she is” as a weak defense. However, at the end of the day, none of them including Martina herself have offered up any references or evidence to substantiate her claims as true. Martina is leveraging her own fame and her sexuality to deliver ignorant comments that may very well inform discriminatory policies and agendas without being checked or challenged.
What is most striking about Martina’s transphobia is that it is singularly reserved for transwomen as she makes no mention of transmen in her piece. She also makes this bizarre “critical distinction” between “transgender and transsexual athletes.” As she sees it, transgender “have had the deed done” as they are post operative, had gender reassignment surgery. Transsexual female athletes, it seems, are merely trying this out for a bit to get some trophies and prize money; that fame that eluded them whilst competing as a man. Transathletes, which for her thinking are only transwomen athletes, are merely gaming the system as they retain their penises along with their masculine muscular physique. She concedes that they may take hormone therapy “if required” as though there is a choice in the matter.
Prejudice pals and bias buddies, Peggy and Tina
Again, it is not clear where Martina is getting her data as one is left wondering who are these men that are “declaring” themselves to be women just for the trophies. She does not believe these athletes have genuinely gone through the emotional and physical journey of living their truth. She holds this entire group of persons as being suspicious and cheats. She imagines that there are hordes of men who, having failed to garner much success as male athletes and are so hungry for gold, woke up one morning and perform a “simple switch” to womanhood just to be atop the podium. Who are these men? Which transgender person, transman or transwoman has ever stated or shown that they were willing to transition for some nominal glory on the sports field or any other arena? This type of thinking is problematic as it not only aggressively questions folks trying to live their truth, it asks us to doubt their very existence and the authenticity of transpeople as a whole.
As you can expect with this level of ignorance, Martina does not offer a reason or rationale for her disdain of transwomen athletes. She neglects to note that since the 2004 Olympics, transathletes can participate in any Olympic sport. ANY ONE OF THE 57 OLYMPIC SPORTS (42 in the Summer Games and 15 in the Winter Games); See International Olympic Committee Transgender Policy That means that a transwoman could have been a part of any gymnastics team or been swimming on the Russian synchronized swimming team in Athens or any sanctioned event such as Nationals, Regional, World Cup or World Championships since then. Martina neglects to mention that the rules surrounding trans athletes are not based on merely their “declaration” of being the other gender but very clear guidelines and stipulations.
Prior to the 2016 Olympics games, the rules were that transmen can participate in any sport without restrictions on testosterone hormones level as long as it did not exceed doping levels for other male athletes. Transwomen, however, had to have gender reassignment surgery and their testosterone levels to acceptable levels for 2 years before being able to participate. Since 2016, the surgery is no longer necessary and the hormone therapy is reduced to a year. The hormone level was also further reduced. What she never mentions is that the WTA has a transgender policy in place currently which was updated last December which explicitly allows for transwomen to compete on tour.
All this would have been valuable for Martina to discuss if she were willing to take it into consideration because there have been real thought and research on the matter. She would have also seen that despite transathletes being allowed to play at the top of sports, there are not that many of note. For well over a decade, transpeople have been allowed to participate fully at the top level of sports but the hordes of men masquerading as women in our favourite sports have yet to materialize. Someone should explain to Martina that transpeople are not drag performers and it is highly insulting to suggest as such. Transitioning to one’s true gender identity is not an easy decision nor a simple process. It is a journey that literally takes years and even more so if one wishes to be a professional athlete. Society has yet to come to terms with ordinary transpeople in their everyday lives much less to deal with the idea of a pro transathlete particularly a potential prodigious transathlete. The sporting world barely has room for the mere presence of gay male athletes in its ranks. Professional tennis has yet to have a single out gay male player and it is 2019. If Martina is telling us that we should be suspicious of transwoman athletes then by extension, we should be suspicious of gay and lesbian athletes when they do come out. She knows more than any other that coming out as lesbian on tour sent a rippling effect throughout the tennis world. She faced disgusting insinuations of predatory and lecherous behaviour. I remember vividly hearing folks talking about her being bad for the sport and should be banned altogether. All this must have been devastating and distracting for her game. Yet she faced all that only to come out at the other end to be championing the discrimination of another queer group.
In order to defend her untenable position, Martina offers up her relationship with Renee Richards, a former tennis pro, her coach and a transwoman as evidence of her not being transphobic. She alleges having had no objection to Richards playing in the women’s singles at the US Open while Martina was competing. Yet she is now objecting to others transwomen participating in sports today. It is unclear why Martina even mentions Richards other than to assert the notion that Richards was a true transwoman because she had gender reassignment surgery before playing the tournament. It is also inexplicable why Martina then further dives into the depths of total ignorance by mentioning for her “the most controversial current case”, Caster Semenya, the double Olympic 800m champion. What Martina fails to recognize is that Semenya is not a transwomen nor a transathlete. She is a cisgender woman who might be dealing with the effects of hyperandrogenism but is nonetheless a woman competing in female sports.
Martina took to Twitter after major fallout from her op-ed stating that she had more “research” to do and will provide an update in the near future. What subsequently came of this was even more problematic if such a thing were possible in light of where she had begun. She states that she has now educated herself on the subject. Evidently this did not happen during the last Christmas break when she had allegedly study the matter then and felt the need to write the original op-ed piece. This time around, she adds offhandedly, this new search for information did not mean she was getting a “degree or a doctorate in all things transgender”. Nevertheless, she felt it was her place to “try to open up the debate about equality and fairness in relations to transgender participation in women’s sport.”
This glib attitude is so infuriating because here is Martina, a well known sports personality with a massive platform professing a debate when she is refusing to do due diligence on the subject to present her side of the matter cogently. This means that she read not one of the three scholarly scientific articles she lists at the end of her statement and cites none of them within it. Had she done so, she would have realized that they more so hurt her case than helped it. She adds that she was jettisoned from her position as an ambassador for Athlete Ally but fails to mentions that the organization offered to educate her for free on transathletes. Not surprising that Martina declined this opportunity. What is even more alarming is that this celebrity of sorts, a cis gendered white lesbian woman of means, is trying to debate the civil rights of transatheletes and had a prominent seat at an organization dedicated to the rights of LGBTQI athletes.
One of the major things that stood out for me in Martina’s initial piece and her subsequent attempt at an “apology”, was the general tone of her stance. There was a tone of glee and almost delight at relegating transpeople and transwomen to the back lots. There was a complete dismissal and overall thingification of the group as though they had no right to liberty, life and God forbid, sports. The more disturbing thing was that Martina has taken up the gay white conservative cause of bartering trans rights for the perceived uplifting of white gay/lesbian rights only.
The distinction may be lost on some but notice how aggressively the current American administration has been waging an unrelenting war against the trans community. Many transpeople, particularly transwomen of colour are being murdered on a near daily basis and still all those gay conservatives are expressing support for this administration. It was not surprising that prominent twitter trolls and conservative policy makers held up Martina’s views on transpeople as fuel to further amplify their warped agendas. Martina expressed a certain ambivalence on this front. “Those are unwelcomed bedfellows” she says but it is clear that she is still sleeping with them.
Martina might not get this and is in too privileged of a position to care but her views are being used to fuel a queerphobic agenda. History has shown that once a dominant political culture has succeeded in marginalizing one group, or initially get at part of a group, they move on to even more discriminatory practices against everyone else. Oppression never ends with one group. Oppression is all consuming even for the oppressors. This attempt to splinter the queer community and parcel out civil rights to few within it, will not only see legislation against transpeople but against us all, gay, lesbian, bisexual and those questioning. Furthermore, Martina’s words have immediate devastating consequences on young queer children only looking to live their lives and enjoy sports, to say nothing of current and potential tennis players struggling with their gender identity and/or sexuality. Thus Martina’s idea that barring transwomen from sports will not just end at the professional level. It will lead to even more problematic restrictions at all levels including at playgrounds near you. Martina really needs to leave this matter alone. She should stay silent because she is bringing nothing to the table but aiding in the marginalizing of herself and her fellow queer community. Martina should know that transwomen are women and more importantly, they are fellow human beings.
Here are a few links to further outlets that might provide a clearer picture on the subject at hand as well as surrounding issues.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/07/scientist-racing-discover-how-gender-transitions-alter-athletic-performance-including (Article: Scientist racing to discover gender transition on athletic performance)
https://mavenroundtable.io/transgenderuniverse/news/study-reveals-effectiveness-of-testosterone-suppression-in-trans-women-FOZkV7IkuUqWHdgkqd3BPg/ (Article: Effectiveness of Testosterone suppression)
https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/we-cant-be-erased (Podcast: Trans Rights Activism)
https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/massachusetts-transgender-question-three (Podcast: Trans Rights)
https://deadspin.com/the-obsession-with-caster-semenyas-body-was-racist-from-1832994493tm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_campaign=sharebar (Article: Caster Semenya)
https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/radiolab/podcasts/3 (Podcasts. Check out the Gonads series in this list)
Realz Tenis Fanz 