Life

Martina Navratilova demands Daniel Radcliffe “be quiet” about trans rights

She got mad at him for something he said three years ago.
By
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe Photo: Shutterstock

Tennis player Martina Navratilova wants actor Daniel Radcliffe to pipe down about his support for the transgender community.

On Monday, the out tennis champ dismissed a three-year-old statement from the Harry Potter star supporting trans women that resurfaced on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Related:

Fairness is a red herring: What the fight over trans athletes is really about

Award-winning journalist Katie Barnes takes on science, policy, and empathy in a new book.

Back in 2020, Radcliffe responded to Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s increasingly anti-trans tweets in a statement released by the Trevor Project. “Transgender women are women,” he wrote at the time. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional healthcare associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”

Over the weekend, a user on X reposted the above quote, criticizing Radcliffe for implying that Rowling “is ‘not as versed on the subject’ of what a woman is.”

Navratilova reposted that wild mischaracterization of the actor’s point, adding her own snide advice to Radcliffe.

“Just be quiet Daniel,” she wrote. “Be quiet.”

An 18-time Grand Slam singles champion and member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Navratilova was outed as bisexual in a 1981 New York Daily News story. She later came out as a lesbian and was one of the first inductees in the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.

In recent years, however, she has been outspoken in her opposition to transgender women participating in women’s sports, repeating misconceptions and misinformation about trans athletes.

“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,” Navratilova tweeted in late 2018.

“A man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting [organization] is concerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies if he so desires,” she wrote in a column in the Times of London, providing no evidence that such a scenario has ever happened. “I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her. It would not be fair.”

Don't forget to share:

Life
Daniel Radcliffe JK Rowling Martina Navratilova trans women trans women in sports transgender athletes

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Once Monthly Annually

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

On the Road visits LGBTQ+-owned businesses in Austin while On the Road

Previous article

CDC recommends queer men & trans women take a morning after pill to prevent STIs

Next article

More on LGBTQ Nation