[American Thinker] Martina Navratilova is one of the greatest female tennis players of all time. She holds the record for most singles and doubles titles in the Open Era (167 and 177, respectively), including 17 Grand Slam singles titles. For 15 straight years, from 1977 to 1993, she never fell below the top 3 ranking in Women's Tennis Association singles. At a time when baseline play was the norm, she revolutionized women's tennis with her aggressive serve and volley style reminiscent of her male counterparts of the era. Navratilova defected from communist Czechoslovakia in 1975 and became a U.S. citizen in 1981. That same year, when there was still a price to be paid for doing so, she came out as a lesbian and has since engaged in a long career of LGBT activism. She lent her name and support to ballot initiatives, spoke at LGBT marches, and in 2000 was the recipient of the National Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT lobbying group. She is active on Twitter and firmly in the Orange Man Bad camp. No one could ever accuse Martina of not being down for the cause.
All this was not enough to protect Navratilova from ostracization and accusations of bigotry last week when she questioned the wisdom of allowing men pretending to be women to compete in women's sports. In an equivocal, diplomatic, almost apologetic column in the Sunday Times, she suggested that men have an unfair advantage over actual women.
Perhaps in recognition of the absurdity of their position, the reaction from transsexual, transgender activists was quick, severe, and unforgiving. Navratilova was accused of being "transphobic" on social media, attacked in the LGBT press, and kicked off the board of an organization called Athlete Ally that promotes athletes based on their sexual orientation.