Martina’s Still a Standout

Martina Navratilova isn’t just one of the greatest tennis players ever; she also pioneered the way for all gay athletes when she came out in 1981. Yet she’s now being demonized by gay groups for publicly stating an obvious truth: Transgender women athletes have “unfair physical advantages.”

“It’s insane, and it’s cheating,” she wrote in the Sunday Times of London.

Navratilova first leveled that accusation last December, only to face a firestorm of outrage. So she promised to remain silent while she did more research.

“Well, I’ve now done that,” she wrote, “and, if anything, my views have strengthened.”

Which led Athlete Ally, a nonprofit out to “end rampant homophobia” in sports, to slam her as “transphobic,” ax her as its ambassador and expel her from its advisory board.

Navratilova, it’s well worth noting, was an early champion of Renee Richards, the first transgender woman pro tennis player, who later even served as the star’s coach.

And Navratilova makes “a critical distinction” between those who, like Richards, have had gender-reassignment surgery and those who merely “identify” as female and take hormones.

Even with hormone treatment, transgender women have more muscle mass and bone density and higher levels of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, which aid athletic ability. That’s a real issue, especially at the highschool and college levels, where students are also competing for scholarships.

As Navratilova says, “There must be some standards,” which should bar someone from “having a penis and competing as a woman.”

So now this longtime gay icon is being ostracized for her heterodoxy by those she so vigorously championed when it was professionally risky. For shame.