Tennis News: Martina Navratilova slaps back at drag queen post

Martina Navratilova doesn’t hold back. She sees a comment or post or news story she feels passionate about and she is going to say something. And she should. After decades of being a top-level tennis player as well as being a social activist, she has earned the right to say what she thinks.

Some in the conservative media seem to take her mantel up in error, too. For instance, FOX News this week ran an article with the headline, “Tennis legend Martina Navratilova slams interior secretary’s video with drag queen: ‘Is this a joke?'” Well, that is misleading (of course, not shocking considering the source). The word “slam” in the title is a joke.

The issue is that United States Interior Secretary Deb Haaland had posted a tweet (an X?) about honoring LGBTQ+ historical sites like Stonewall and in the tweet Haaland used a drag queen to convey information. Navratilova’s issue with this didn’t have anything to do directly with the LGBTQ+ community but likely that a lesbian wasn’t used for the snippet instead of a drag queen.

Martina Navratilova tweets a reply commenting on a hot-button issue

Navratilova has been openly gay for decades and has never wavered from two facts: One is that there should be LGBTQ+ rights, but also that women have always been dismissed in the general view of whatever is happening. This was her issue, and not as the conservative news might imply that she felt the use of a member of the LGBTQ+ community was used at all.

Still, Navratilova did have an issue with the post and asked somewhat sarcastically if the tweet from Haaland was a “joke”? Of course, she knew that it wasn’t a joke, but her reply still set off a firestorm of replies.

Navratilova has been in the news quite a bit lately. Maybe that is simply because she is commenting on hot-button issues. Still, she draws attention because of her fame and outspokenness. That, in turn, becomes newsworthy itself.