Martina Navratilova, the women's tennis legend who knows more about women's competition than most politicians know about tying their shoes, just called out California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Olympic gold medalists rip Newsom for California's trans athlete situation ahead of protested track meet | OutKick-right on Nancy!!! We are just built different!!! https://t.co/Nf7bUwjq5X
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) May 8, 2026
Navratilova blasted Newsom over a state policy that allows AB Hernandez, a transgender athlete from Jurupa Valley High School, to compete in girls' high school track. Hernandez, a boy competing in girls' track, has been seeded first in the upcoming state championship, after winning multiple girls' events.
Navratilova called the current setup cheating, then directly aimed her criticism at Newsom, who, as governor, admitted in 2025 that allowing trans athletes in girls' sports is “deeply unfair.” His silence now looks less like thoughtfulness and more like political choreography with bad lighting.
But with perfectly coiffed hair, of course.
J.K. Rowling, creator of Harry Potter and founder of Beira's Place, has landed in the same place for the same reason, praising the International Olympic Committee's March 2026 decision that barred trans men from women's Olympic events. Rowling called it a return to fair sport for women and girls.
Rowling also tied the ruling to the ugly memory of the Paris 2024 boxing controversy, where people, thinking themselves enlightened, cheered on men who dominated women's categories, categories that became another battlefield in the war against common sense.
Navratilova and Rowling don't agree on every political question, which makes their agreement here harder to simply dismiss. Both women draw the line at men playing women's sports.
Biology tells us that male puberty creates strength, speed, and leverage advantages that don't vanish because a rulebook gets rewritten. Female sports exist because biology once forced women to fight for their own fair chance. Now, after all those years of being told to prove themselves, girls are being told to smile quietly while the finish line gets moved.
Olympic gold medalist swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar and Olympic gold medalist bobsledder Kaillie Humphries have also criticized the California situation.
In an article shared on the New York Post, Jackson Thompson, a Fox News correspondent, shared Navratilova's reaction to Hogshead-Makar's criticism of Newsom.
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.
They're not holding abstract concerns; a spot on a podium affects recruiting attention, scholarship chances, confidence, and a young athlete's sense that effort still means something.
Martina Navratilova is a lifelong Democrat.
— Commentary: Rush Limbaugh News (@ElRushboNews) May 9, 2026
Nancy Hogshead is a lifelong Democrat and a civil rights lawyer.
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries is a California taxpayer.
All three are calling out Gavin Newsom today for letting a biological male compete as the… pic.twitter.com/GHYoLaJGsm
When officials treat fairness as a PR problem, the damage lands on girls who followed every rule and still watched the rules bend against them.
Women make up just over half the U.S. population. The Williams Institute at UCLA estimated that in 2025, about 1% of Americans age 13 and older identify as transgender.
Somehow, the modern left keeps asking the larger group to surrender ground for the smaller one, then acts puzzled when normal people notice the math. Compassion for trans people doesn't require pretending girls don't lose something real when officials erase the purpose of girls' sports.
President Donald Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports” executive order in Feb. 2025, putting federal pressure behind the same basic principle Navratilova and Rowling have defended in public.
Newsom, meanwhile, has tried to occupy both sides of the issue, calling the policy unfair while governing a state that keeps allowing it. California's problem now is his, because authority brings responsibility.
No governor can keep nodding toward fairness while letting girls pay the bill.
Navratilova has spent years defending women's sports, even when doing so costs her applause from people who once treated her as a hero. Rowling has faced harsher abuse, but her point has remained steady. Women's rights mean little when officials carve out exceptions that swallow the category whole.
Girls don't need theater; they need rules that tell the truth.
Biology isn't cruelty; fairness isn't hate, and no amount of political stage makeup and hair gel can turn a rigged race into justice.
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