By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Thusday, June 19, 2025
Picture credit score: Avantist
Martina Navratilova says the WTA is flawed to allow transgender ladies to play ladies’s tennis.
Corridor of Famer Navratilova says permitting transgender ladies to compete in opposition to organic ladies not solely creates an unfair taking part in area, it takes job alternatives away from organic ladies as a result of “now a male has taken her place.”
In a wide-ranging new interview with BBC’s Ashitha Nagesh, the previous world No. 1 reiterated her long-stated stance that the WTA is flawed in permitting trans ladies to compete on the Tour.
“There must be no ostracism, there must be no bullying,” Navratilova told BBC. “However male our bodies have to play in male sports activities. They will nonetheless compete. There is no such thing as a ban on transwomen in sports activities.
“They only have to compete within the correct class which is the male class. It is that easy.”
The 18-time Grand Slam singles champion prompt ladies are being handled as second-class residents in their very own sport. Navratilova stated it is irritating and flawed that “we at all times appears to place trans rights forward of girls’s rights.”
“By together with male our bodies within the ladies’s event, now someone shouldn’t be entering into the event – a girl shouldn’t be entering into the event as a result of now a male has taken her place,” Navratilova advised BBC.
For years, Navratilova has been some of the outspoken critics of the WTA coverage on trans ladies taking part in tennis, writing a controversial editorial for The Instances on the subject.
Right here is the WTA rule on transgender ladies competing on the ladies’s tour from the WTA Rulebook:
“Eligibility circumstances for organic males with a feminine or non-binary gender id In circumstances falling inside clause 2.1.2, to be eligible to compete in WTA Tournaments, a organic male with a feminine or non-binary gender id should display to the satisfaction of the WTA Medical Supervisor that they meet every of the next necessities (collectively, the Eligibility Circumstances): They have to present a written and signed declaration, in a type passable to the WTA, that their gender id is feminine or non-binary, they usually should keep a feminine or non-binary gender id for as long as they want to retain eligibility to compete in WTA Tournaments.
Earlier than they compete of their first WTA Match, the focus of testosterone of their blood will need to have been under 2.5 nmol/L constantly for the earlier twenty 4 (24) months. The focus of testosterone of their blood should stay under 2.5 nmol/L always thereafter (i.e., whether or not they’re in competitors or out of competitors) for as long as they want to retain eligibility to compete in WTA Tournaments.”
In a Wimbledon press convention final July, a journalist requested: “Martina, have you ever confronted any backlash relating to your feedback on ladies’s tennis and transgender gamers?”
Navratilova replied: “The place have you ever been?
“Backlash? The place have you ever been? I have been jettisoned by a number of the teams within the LGBT group,” Navratilova replied. “However, you realize, I have been talking my thoughts for a very long time. I am not going to alter that.
“Sure, it has been fairly tough. However I do know I am on the precise facet of historical past. I am proper on most individuals’s opinion about ladies’s sex-based areas, and particularly sports activities. They should keep feminine.”
The proprietor of 59 Grand Slam titles throughout all disciplines, Navratilova has been branded “transphobic” by some critics, who say this can be a human rights challenge.
The left-hander has publicly battled figures starting from soccer star Megan Rapinoe to Harry Potter star Daniel Ratcliffe to the USTA over transgender athletes participation in ladies’s sports activities.
In an interview with Time Magazine final yr, Rapinoe prompt Navratilova was not solely weaponizing ladies’s sports activities, she implied essential feedback by Navratilova, comic Dave Chappelle and former ESPN star Sage Steele have been resulting in violence in opposition to trans folks.
“It’s notably irritating when ladies’s sports activities is weaponized,” Rapinoe told Time Magazine. “Oh, now we care about equity? Now we care about ladies’s sports activities? That’s complete b*llsh*t. And present me all of the trans people who find themselves nefariously profiting from being trans in sports activities. It’s simply not taking place…
“Dave Chappelle making jokes about trans folks immediately results in violence, whether or not it’s verbal or in any other case, in opposition to trans folks. When Martina or Sage or whoever are speaking about this, folks aren’t listening to it simply within the context of elite sports activities. They’re saying, ‘The remainder of my life, that is how I’m going to deal with trans folks.”
Talking at Wimbledon final July, Navratilova acknowledges it is turn out to be a political challenge, however maintains she views it as a ladies’s rights challenge.
“However the politics have been form of loopy about that. It is turn out to be very political when it should not be in relation to ladies’s rights,” Navratilova stated. “We appear to place the trans rights forward of girls’s rights, notably for males that determine as ladies.
“Ladies are requested to be variety and be inclusive, but by together with transgender-identified males in ladies’s sports activities, you are excluding ladies.
Navratilova stated response to her stance has “been fairly tough within the LGBT group,” however says she’s additionally acquired some optimistic response.
“Anyway, it is a lengthy story. I will not go into too many particulars. Yeah, it has been fairly tough within the LGBT group,” Navratilova stated. “However on the identical time, I went to a drag queen present in Miami a pair months in the past. I used to be questioning how it could be.
“All people simply could not have been nicer, together with the drag queens, together with all people else there. I felt very cherished by the group as an entire, however you would not assume that if you hear from a few of these spokespeople at these teams. I am good the place I’m and I will hold combating the combat.”
In an interview with Kara Swisher of New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, Navratilova was requested why her place modified on transgender athletes competing in ladies’s sports activities. Navratilova supported transgender tennis participant Dr. Renee Richards taking part in the WTA Tour in her period. The pair are good associates and Richards later coached Navratilova.
Navratilova asserts she believes trans ladies will ultimately dominate ladies’s sports activities and says her stance is about making a stage taking part in area for ladies slightly than excluding and discriminating in opposition to trans athletes.
“This isn’t in opposition to trans athletes. That is in opposition to male our bodies competing as ladies, in the event that they determine as ladies,” Navratilova told Kara Swisher. “Many sports activities don’t even have any mitigation, any allowance for reducing the testosterone stage, et cetera.
“However what has been confirmed, even if you do take these testosterone blockers or hormone remedy, even after 15 years, male our bodies nonetheless retain bodily benefit over ladies athletes.
“So we’re not in opposition to trans athletes. We’re for ladies athletes to compete in as stage a taking part in area as doable. Which implies the males, who now determine as ladies, ought to compete in a male class. And girls who determine as males however don’t take testosterone can compete as ladies. As a result of there’s nonetheless no benefit bodily over different ladies athletes. That’s all that’s about.”
