An OutSFL senior reporter wasn’t expecting to get into a Twitter feud with a tennis star this week, but apparently he has.
John Hayden discovered that a clip of him on Happening Out TV from a few weeks ago was retweeted by Martina Navratilova on Dec. 3; the tweet has since had more than 142,000 views.
She tweeted, “This part of the thread was really special - one man lecturing me while two more nod approvingly. As if.”
In the video, Hayden said, “You are a bad parody of a human being. The fact that you were a trailblazer and hero in 1981 — great, thank you for coming out, thank you for being what you were — but the fact is you’re not that anymore. You’re not an ally.”
When saying a “bad parody,” he was referring to a comment by Navratilova during LGBTQ History Month. She retweeted a video of a drag queen discussing the importance of the Stonewall National Monument and wrote, “Is this a joke? The pathetic parody of women continues.” The clip of the Happening Out TV report was tweeted by a man who describes himself as “against gender ideology and puberty blockers.”
Navratilova made sports and LGBTQ history when she was outed in an article in 1981. She confirmed she was bisexual, but later identified herself as a lesbian. Her partner Judy Nelson often attended matches, and she was trained by a trans woman, Dr. Renée Richards (who was outed in an interview in 1976). Navratilova married Julia Lemigova in 2014. On the court, she spent almost six years as the No. 1 singles player in the world and had rivalries with Chris Evert and Steffi Graf.
In her retirement, Navratilova has been a vocal opponent of transgender women playing in women’s sports, going so far as calling them “failed male athletes.” In 2020, she was one of 309 women athletes to sign a letter to the NCAA barring trans women from playing women’s sports.
Members of this camp believe it chips away at the battles women athletes have fought to be included in sports. She has also consistently gone after trans swimmer Lia Thomas.
For Hayden, who has more than two decades of experience in TV news and currently reports on LGBTQ issues, her anti-trans comments are nothing new. Last week, he reported on the controversy at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, where four administrators have been re-assigned after allowing a trans girl to join the volleyball team.
“We can’t abandon the T. LGBTQ must stick together because our enemies are patient. Once we abandon one letter, then they’ll come after the next, and they don’t care how long it takes,” he said. “We stand together or we fall together.”
Hayden replied to the tennis trailblazer, standing by his comments but offering to discuss her thoughts over an interview.
“I think this is a good opportunity to look at how we treat our trans brothers and sisters,” Hayden told OutSFL. “Trans people have been and continue to be on the front lines of the LGBTQ fight. They didn't ask for this, but they’re in it, and we must support them, and that includes sports.”
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