Tennis legend Martina Navratilova blasted a male reporter who called her “transphobic” in connection with her stance against the inclusion of biological males who identify as female in female sports.
It began with a Friday report on X from writer Mitchell Northam about vandalization of the “Take Back Title IX” tour bus after its event in Chapel Hill. Northam’s report said eggs were thrown at the bus and messages were written on it. One of the messages read, “Transphobic pu**ies.”
‘You can just go away now. Hope I see your nasty self at Wimbledon — if you are there.’
With that, another writer — Ben Rothenberg — jumped in and ripped the tennis great: “Martina Navratilova turning this anti-trans crusade into her life’s obsession in recent years remains dispiriting! And she turns it into way more transphobic vitriol than just discussing sports fairness, as I’ve covered before, just being nasty and cruel and dehumanizing. Boo.”
Navratilova caught wind of Rothenberg’s critique and returned the favor: “Yet another man telling women what they should care about. And who are you exactly? Oh yeah, the reporter who tells tennis players it’s off the record and then prints what they said anyway. Good to know you care about women’s sports and women’s sex-based spaces. I care.”
Rothenberg wrote back to Navratilova, disputing her claims: “I’ve never done that. But I care also, about someone who was a beacon of freedom and inclusion in the sport I’ve covered sadly choosing to erode the platform she built with cyberbullying campaigns aimed at obscure, low-level amateur athletes. I wish you were better than that.”
Not to be outdone, Navratilova dropped the big one on Rothenberg: “Cyberbullying — wow. I am blocking you once and for all. For your information, I am doing a whole lot more than just tweeting. You can just go away now. Hope I see your nasty self at Wimbledon — if you are there.”
Rothenberg wasn’t through, either: “(Been wild to see when these folks have swarmed my mentions how for so many of them, this issue has become their entire personality on this website. Fighting this trans boogeyman by trawling super obscure amateur sports events for examples becomes an obsession, a lifestyle.)”
Rothenberg’s initial post on X was in ratio-land as of Monday afternoon — nearing a thousand comments compared to 630 likes.
Back in 2019, after Navratilova penned an op-ed saying that transgender females competing against biological women is “insane and cheating,” an advocacy group for LGBTQ athletes — Athlete Ally — kicked Navratilova off its advisory board over her “transphobic” comments.
(H/T: Outkick reported)
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Source: TheBlaze
