Martina Navratilova hits out at drag queen speaking about anti-LGBTQ+ hate
Martina Navratilova has lashed out at a drag queen who spoke about the erosion of queer rights. (Tim Clayton/Corbis/Getty Images)
Lesbian former tennis star Martina Navratilova has hit out at a drag queen just because she spoke about how LGBTQ+ rights are being eroded in the US.
On Wednesday (4 October), Navratilova slammed a video of US secretary of the interior Deb Haaland speaking with drag queen Pattie Gonia, calling it a “joke” and a the drag queen a “pathetic parody of women”.
In recent years, the sporting star has campaigned against trans people participating in women’s sport, now she has turned her attention to the drag community.
The video, which was recorded at the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village, New York City to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month, was posted by Haaland on X, formerly Twitter.
In the one minute clip, Haaland asks why places such as the Stonewall National Monument are important to telling America’s story.
Pattie Gonia responds: “I think it’s because queer rights are more under attack than ever. If we don’t acknowledge the past we’re bound to repeat it.”
The drag queen adds that the location marks where “so much discrimination and hatred occurred against the queer community” but it’s equally a place of “resistance, queer joy and queer liberation”.
“I think we need to not ignore hate as it exists today,” she continued. “We need to acknowledge it because it’s not just our past it’s our present.”
Navratilova, who won 167 singles tournaments, including nine Wimbledon and four US Open titles during her career, reposted the video with the caption: “Is this a joke? The pathetic parody of women continues.”
Social media users responded to Navratilova’s post with disappointment that the former tennis pro would share “intolerance” and fail to stand with the LGBTQ+ community.
One user called Navratilova out for not being part of the same movement, which includes trans activists, that she, as a lesbian, benefits from.
However, the former tennis star responded with defiance, writing: “Because I was on the front line before there was a front line.
“And you will never convince me to stop fighting for equal rights for women – thank you.”
Navratilova also recently told Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe to “be quiet” because he defended trans women in the wake of franchise creator JK Rowling publishing her infamous ‘TERF wars’ essay sharing her “concerns” about the trans community.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Navratilova wrote: “Just be quiet, Daniel. Be quiet.”
The former tennis pro’s views on trans women competing in elite sports have attracted criticism after she claimed that their participation constitutes a form of “cheating”.
The 2019 comment sparked a response from football star Megan Rapinoe who said it is “frustrating when women’s sport is weaponised” to serve an anti-trans agenda.
In response, Navratilova said she deplored “what seems to be a growing tendency among transgender activists to denounce anyone who argues against them and to label them transphobes”.
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