Women’s tennis legend speaks out on California trans athlete controversy as Newsom faces criticism

Women’s tennis legend Martina Navratilova weighed in on the sudden trans athlete controversy in Gavin Newsom’s California, with the girls’ high school track and field championships coming up.

A trans athlete is set to compete in the girls’ tournament this year, after winning multiple state finals last year. California is continuing to let biological males compete in girls’ sports under Newsom’s leadership, prompting criticism from many activists.

Navratilova cheered on two gold-medal-winning women’s Olympians who spoke out against Newsom on Friday.

The tennis legend shared a Fox News Digital article of women’s Olympic gold medalists Nancy Hogshead and Kaillie Humphries addressing the track and field controversy.

“Right on Nancy!!! We are just built different!!!” Navratilova wrote in an X post sharing the article.

In a response to the post, Navratilova argued to another user that Newsom could take action to protect girls’ sports in California.

“Newsom could overturn this in a second. No excuse,” Navratilova wrote.

In a later post on Saturday, Navratilova re-shared news that the trans athlete, representing Jurupa Valley High School, is seeded first in the upcoming tournament.

“Cheating… which at the moment the rules allow. Thanks for nothing [Gavin Newsom],” Navratilova wrote.

Navratilova, like Hogshead, is a vocal advocate for protecting women’s sports despite supporting Democrats on other issues.

Hogshead responded to a statement from a source within Newsom’s office on the issue that stated, “The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect,” regarding the upcoming track meet and a planned protest against the trans athlete at the meet.

“Governor Newsom seems to exclude girls from his own standard of ‘fairness, dignity and respect.’ It is impossible to include a male — however they identify — into girl’s sports and have a fair competition, respecting and dignifying the unique biology of females. Females aren’t weakened males; males and females are built from different molds, so different that it justifies formal, government-sanctioned sex segregation,” Hogshead told Fox News Digital.

Hogshead, who represented the U.S. at the 1984 Summer Olympics, where she won three gold medals and one silver medal in swimming, has become a prominent activist in the fight to save women’s sports, despite being a lifelong Democrat. Hogshead is also a civil rights lawyer.

“The government never segregates racially and religiously, but we do segregate by sex because of biology, material reality. Girls and women rely on that formal sex segregation to have the possibility of equality in sport. Governor Newsom needs to include the girls competing in track in his own analysis. As a law professor, this is a big fail,” she continued.

Humphries, who is a tax-paying California citizen and rising Trump ally in the effort to protect women’s sports, criticized Newsom as well. Humphries has won three Olympic gold medals in bobsled for the U.S. and Canada and six medals in total, making her the most decorated women’s bobsledder in history.

“There is nothing fair about allowing boys to take opportunities from girls in sports. It’s just the left’s thinly veiled misogyny. Governor Newsom should be focusing on California hosting the Olympics which actually knows the difference between men and women and quit pushing his woke agenda which is out of the mainstream of the American public,” Humphries told Fox News Digital.

The source within Newsom’s office responded to news that a “Save Girls Sports” protest will be held on Saturday at the site of a track and field playoff meet.

“The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect. He rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids. The Governor’s position is simple: stand with all kids and stand up to bullies,” a source within the governor’s office told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

“California is one of 22 states that have laws requiring students be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school sports consistent with their gender identity. California passed this law in 2013 (AB 1266) and it was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.”

After Jurupa’s trans athlete won first place in triple jump and high jump, and second place in long jump, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice launched a lawsuit against California state agencies for alleged Title IX violations last July.

Trump’s administration cracked down with a more targeted investigation of JUSD in January. The U.S. Department of Education announced JUSD specifically would be investigated for potential Title IX violations, along with 17 other institutions.

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