Women's tennis legend Martina Navratilova defends JK Rowling in debate over males in women's spaces

Women's tennis legend Martina Navratilova stepped into a social media debate in defense of famed "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling over biological males in women's spaces on Thursday. 

Rowling responded to an X thread by English columnist Dan Hodges, who was condemning what he considered "hostile" treatment of biological male transgender people who enter women's spaces. 

Rowling sarcastically wrote in response to Hodges, "A man explaining to women that they should pretend some of his fellow men are women because that’s ‘respectful’ is exactly what this debate needed. Thanks for your bravery."

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Rowling later wrote, "What you, and many other men, fail to grasp, possibly because you're so used to women coddling men's feelings you see it as the natural order of things, is that while a trans-identified man is absolutely and rightly free to dress and refer to himself however he likes in our society, that doesn't give him rights over women's beliefs and speech.

"I don't believe a man literally becomes a woman when he identifies as one, and as I have freedom of speech, I have the right to call him a man. The verifiable truth of sex forms the legal basis for women's rights and for safeguarding. Nothing reveals your inability to grasp this issue, or your fundamental sexism, more than the fact that you, a man, are assuming the right to dictate to women how they should speak about men." 

Another user then responded to Rowling, arguing that the topic of trans people invading women's spaces is a "fringe issue." 

Navratilova then entered the debate in defense of Rowling. 

"Fringe for you maybe. Not so fringe for the women who are affected by males in women’s sex based spaces . Compelled speech is not ok either," Navratilova wrote. 

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Navratilova has been a polarizing figure on social media for her conflicted support for liberals and opposition of Trump. She regularly slams Democrats for allowing biological males in women's sports.

Last December, she said she was "mad" Republicans have tackled the nationwide controversy of trans athletes in women's sports instead of the Democrats. 

"And I am so mad that the Republicans captured this issue – shame on all the elected Democrats who keep silent on this!!! #whataboutthewomen," she wrote on X.

The tennis legend appeared at the Independent Women's Forum's Take Back Title IX rally in June to address the issue.

"Initially, being the Democrats and the women that we are for the most part, we in this group were trying to find every single possible way to include trans-identified men, males who identify as women, into women’s sports," she said. "And the more we try to find a way to mitigate the advantage, to handicap, to somehow to include, the more we figured out it’s not possible. It’s not possible to do it in a fair way, and here we are in a much different position.

"As I got deeper into the issue, I also saw the connection between women’s sex-based spaces and women’s sports. They are totally interconnected, and I’m sure the swimmers at Penn could tell you all about that. You heard about Lia Thomas, right?

"Now, it’s, ‘Oh, you’re a homophobe.’ Go figure. I’ve been out since ’81. Yeah, I’m a homophobe," she said, rolling her eyes. "‘You’re a bigot, you’re a transphobe, you’re a Nazi, you’re a fascist, you’re a communist,’ everything and everything in between. And this is coming from the left. I am the left! My people are turning on me. They’re turning on us women who speak up for women’s sex-based rights."

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