Tennis great Martina Navratilova, long a champion for women's sports, has called out Lia Thomas after Thomas criticized people who claim to be feminists but only "half-support" her as a transgender swimmer.
On the "Dear Schuyler" podcast with host Schuyler Bailar, Thomas, a biological male, said it’s not possible to claim to be a feminist and not support her competing in women's sports.
"They're like, 'We respect Lia as a woman, as a trans woman, whatever. We respect her identity; we just don't think it's fair,'" said Thomas, who in 2022 became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I women's swimming title. "You can't really have that and that sort of half-support of, 'Oh, I respect her as a woman here, but not here.'
"They're using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs."
Navratilova, who once said an asterisk should be placed on Thomas' NCAA women's title because Thomas is a biological male, took to Twitter on Wednesday to snap back against his latest comments.
"Lia Thomas Says Her Critics Using 'Feminism' Claims To Hide Transphobia — NEWSFLASH Lia — it's not fair. We shouldn't have to explain it to you over and over. Also — stop explaining feminism to feminists," she tweeted.
A Thomas supporter replied, "I'm a feminist, and I don't like how it's being weaponized against the Trans community either. I agree issues around professional sports are complicated but I'm with Lia on that point."
Navratilova countered: "So you're ok with biological males competing against biological females? I am not."
Navratilova has maintained she is not against transgender athletes. She said her beliefs about Thomas competing against biological women is unfair because of the distinct physical advantages most men have over women: larger muscle mass, larger frame, larger cardiac output, and larger lung capacity.
In fact, Navratilova, who is a lesbian, is part of the Women's Sports Policy Working Group, which is trying to find a compromise regarding transgender athletes and girls and women's sports. The group said it rejects "the effort to exclude trans girls and trans women from girls' and women's sport and the effort to disadvantage females by forcing them to compete against some trans athletes with male sex-linked physical advantages. There is a middle way."
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