Trans athletes who take on women are cheating – Martina
MARTINA Navratilova has reignited a row over male-born transgender athletes competing against biological women, branding the situation as ‘insane ... it’s cheating’. The Wimbledon champion and LGBT campaigner said hundreds of trans athletes have ‘achieved honours as women that were beyond their capabilities as men’.
And she deplored the ‘tyranny’ of transgender activists who ‘denounce anyone who argues against them’.
Navratilova, 62, first entered the debate before Christmas, saying: ‘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’.
That prompted Rachel McKinnon, the first transgender woman to win a female cycling world title, to call her ‘transphobic’.
In a newspaper comment yesterday, Navratilova – who faced abuse and prejudice after coming out as gay in 1981 – accused the Canadian of sending ‘ bullying tweets’, and said her views had now ‘strengthened’.
Navratilova said: ‘To put the argument at its most basic: A man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organisation is conpete cerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies. It’s insane and it’s cheating.
‘ It is surely unfair on women who have to com- against people who, biologically, are still men. I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her.
‘Simply reducing hormone levels – the prescription most sports have adopted – does not solve the problem. A man builds up muscle and bone density, as well as a greater number of oxygencarrying red blood cells, from childhood. Training increases the discrepancy.’
Navratilova’s comments in the Sunday Times came on the eve of a court hearing at which intersex athlete and Olympic women’s 800m champion Caster Semenya will challenge rules proposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations requiring such athletes to medically lower their testosterone levels before competition.
The IAAF is expected to argue that though Semenya, 28, who was born and raised a woman, and other athletes with ‘differences of sexual development’ are classified as women, they also have male genes and testes.
As a result, it says, they should take hormone suppressants to ensure a level playing field in track events.
Navratilova backed Semenya, saying there was a ‘critical distinction’ between the South African and athletes such as McKinnon, who transitioned six years before winning the sprint at the world championship last October aged 35.
Navratilova acknowledged that McKinnon’s testosterone levels were well within the limits set by world cycling’s governing body, but noted that, at 6ft and weighing 14 stone, she ‘appeared to have a substantial advantage in muscle mass’ over her rivals.
Last night McKinnon accused Navratilova of going ‘full transphobe’.
‘A critical distinction’