Nancy Hogshead-Makar Challenges Tennis Legend Billie Jean King For Stance On Trans-Athlete Participation
Three-time Olympic champion Nancy Hogshead-Makar has called out Grand Slam tennis champion Billie Jean King for supporting a Connecticut sports policy which allows high school athletes to compete in the category – male or female – with which they identify. A lawsuit challenging the trans-inclusive policy was thrown out by a Federal Appeals Court last week, and King took to social media to celebrate the ruling.
Hogshead-Makar has long been an advocate of female rights, including leading the fight for safe spaces and fairness in athletic competitions. When Lia Thomas, a former member of the University of Pennsylvania men’s program transitioned and began racing with the women’s squad, Hogshead-Makar argued against the competitive advantage of Thomas.
While King has been lauded throughout her life for encouraging women athletes and speaking out on behalf of the gay community, her decision to side with the Connecticut rule allowing trans girls to race against cisgender girls brought significant blowback. One of the individuals voicing disappointment was Hogshead-Maker, who won four medals at the 1984 Olympic Games, including three golds.
“Painful,” Hogshead-Makar wrote on Twitter. “Your fame came from beating Bobby Riggs in your prime. Riggs was just a loudmouth – and almost two times your age. You couldn’t have defeated any male player on the Tour. Yet, you’re an extraordinary athlete and trailblazer. That’s why WOMEN need our sex-based rights.”
Keep up the good work Nancy!
Nancy is right. If there was just one trans woman during Billie Jean’s time with today’s Connecticut law, Billie would not have been the trailblazer she turned out to be, she’d be an anecdote and her twitter post today would reverberate a lot less.
Bravo Nancy!
Simple changes needed. No longer girls vs boys. The categories need to be XX and open. There, it’s done. It’s not about the athletes identity, it’s about biology. Nothing but love for the beautiful diversity of people, but if XX sports are not protected, they will disappear.
Bobby Riggs, though pushing 50 at the time, was the No.1 make tennis star. He wasn’t just a sexist loudmouth, he was a champion. Could a female gymnast beat a male gymnast in men’s gymnastics. No. The men’s gymnastics routines are very different than women’s. The tremendous strength it takes for men to perform on the rings is astounding. The flexibility women have on the balance beam is likely beyond what men can do. But tennis isn’t different. The rules are the same. It is all the same in tennis and swimming. Women gymnasts are also very strong. I don’t mean to imply they are not. But, at the same time, I don’t think it is fair to say Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs wasn’t a big deal because of an age difference. I was alive when they played and watched the build-up to the match and saw them play. When it comes to trans athletes, make to female is also not exactly what you think either. Hormone blockers and hormones added change the body a great deal. I knew a trans woman who was developing breasts sa s young boy and his Cuban-born Dad took his son to the doctor to have his breasts removed. At 13 he ran away because he had always known he was a girl. She managed to rent an apartment, make money, and paid rent and lived alone for about a year before being caught and returned home, only to run away again. Neither you nor I can say any different about his or her belief that the mind and spirit (energy/life force) was dofferent than the physical body because we did not have that experience and we cannot know another person’s heart or mind. Today, decades later, that same person isn’t a man with breasts, but she also has hips and a vagina. During development, an embryos developing parts become either testes or ovaries, and either a penis or a clitoris. The difference now is a corrective one via surgery.
There are boys & girls, men & women of every body type. Skinny boys, muscular girls, and that sometimes goes along with their sexual identity and sometimes not. Chromosomes are not as simple as XX and XY, as science continues to learn more and more. Some babies have ambiguous genitals, some have both, and sometimes a choice is made and sometimes that choice for that baby was the wrong choice- they chose ‘girl’ but an older chid may say, No, you should have chosen ‘boy’.
I don’t think these are simple answers and neither are the choices simple either – at least, not for those of us who aren’t in that predicament. However, I dare say that no male student is going to pretend to be trans female in order to beat girls in a sport. Just as straight men do not pretend to be trans in order to peek at ladies in the ladies room. They are all in stalls anyway. However, locker rooms for athletics are different, particularly in school as young people can’t have the complete surgery until they stop developing. I can understand how girls and young women would be uncomfortable or even traumatized changing and showering with a student that has male genitals. Just as Miss Teen and Miss Universe contestants were traumatized by Trump barging in while contestants were changing, and he thought it was ok because he owned the pageant. And just as you may think a ‘born male’ athlete playing on a women’s team or competing against born females gives the trans person some advantage, you don’t think a 6’3” female basketball player has some advantage over a 5’7” player? Or a beefy, strong, female shot-put player doesn’t have an advantage over a skinny male shot-putter? When I was in junior high (mid 1970s, in Louisiana), there was a black boy who wore gauchos and girls boots to school, and his friend who was a large black girl (who was straight) and nobody messed with them because either one of them could beat up any boy or girl in a fight, and we simply didn’t care she was big & tough and he dressed and acted like a girl. My girlfriend in jr. High would smile when he walked by in gauchos & boots, but we didn’t care or even judge him. No one did. Not even the teachers. Maybe you never heard of Renee Richards, the trans tennis star who played on the womens pro circuit, and played doubles once with Bobby Riggs against another couple for $2,000. I just think we need to find ways to be inclusive instead of excluding kids, with a sensitivity to the locker room of cis kids who are likely to find a situation to be uncomfortable or traumatic. Find a way so all kids have all the opportunities we can give them without being cruel. It is important to be aware of why we oppose bullying, and how exclusion and bigotry and ignoring the needs of a child can and too often does lead to death.