A little common sense from Martina
What do you know? A little common sense prevails in the debate about males pretending to be females competing with real women. This is the story:
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova appeared to react to comments from Megan Rapinoe over transgender participation in women's sports as the soccer star gets set to participate in her final World Cup later this month.
Rapinoe was asked about transgender athletes in women's sports in a recent interview with Time magazine. Rapinoe said lawmakers were "trying to legislate away people's full humanity" and said she would accept a transgender woman replacing a biological female on the U.S. national team.
As the comments circulated across the internet, Navratilova chimed in with one word.
"Yikes…" she wrote.
The nine-time Wimbledon champion has been an activist for the gay community but has been against transgender women competing against biological women in sports.
"Yikes" is about right. Nice to see some common sense coming from those like Martina.
Megan Rapinoe's remarks show that she is being driven by ideology rather than common sense. Soccer is a sport that relies on speed and strength. Have you seen a competitive men's match? Bringing in males would destroy the game, and girls and young women would not make the team. It's not about civil rights or gender equity. It's about biology.
My guess is that Martina, an advocate for gay issues, understands the issue and represents where most serious people stand on this. Common sense, not ideology.
Maybe Martina can check with the judges in the Netherlands.
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Image: Andrew Campbell.