(LifeSiteNews) – After two Oregon high school seniors refused to share the medals podium with a gender-confused male competitor, nine-time Wimbledon tennis champion Martina Navratilova took to social media to criticize the unfair transgendering of women’s and girls’ sports.
“Women and girls are punished no matter what they do in this misogynistic world … ” Navratilova wrote on X.
Women and girls are punished no matter what they do in this misogynistic world… https://t.co/3QtvASgvPG
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) June 1, 2025
Navratilova has long been a leading voice against men infiltrating women’s and girls’ sports under the guise of transgenderism.
In 2018, the outspoken lesbian and feminist stunned members of the LGBTQ+ world when she pointed out that men should not be able to compete as women.
Commenting at the time via Twitter, now X, on a BBC article that asked if “transgender women” are really a threat to women’s sports, Navratilova was adamant that men should compete with men, and women should compete with women, no matter what “gender identity” they might declare.
“Clearly that can’t be right,” the tennis legend declared. “You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women. There must be some standards, and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard … “
While the tennis champion, who has won a total of 18 Grand Slam singles titles, has generally been a reliable supporter for a wide spectrum of LGBTQ+ causes, she has remained firm in her judgment against males competing against females.
A video that Navratilova reposted showed Reese Eckard of Sherwood High School and Alexa Anderson of Tigard High School stepping down from the podium at the state track and field championships and turning away rather than pose with male athlete “Liaa” Rose.
Anderson and Eckard placed third and fourth in the girls’ high jump, respectively, and Rose came in fifth.
Their protest was not about being personally displaced on the podium but the principle of males competing in female categories.
An official can then be seen directing them to leave, ostensibly so that they would not be included in the official winner’s photograph.
“We stepped off the podium in protest and, as you can see, the official kind of told us, ‘Hey, go over there, if you’re not going to participate, get out of the photos,’” Anderson explained in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.
“They asked us to move away from the medal stand, so when they took the photos, we weren’t even in it at all,” Anderson said.
“This is the first public stand that I have taken in this issue, but I have privately supported all the girls that have done with positive messages, commenting on posts, just supporting them and letting them know I’m behind them in any way,” she said.
“It’s unfair because biological males and biological females compete at such different levels that letting a biological male into our competition is taking up space and opportunities from all these hard-working women, the girl in ninth who should have came in eighth and had that podium spot taken away from her, as well as many others,” Anderson said.
