"Tell that to the women who had to deal with Lia Thomas" - Martina Navratilova reacts to claims of trans people not being present in female spaces

Tennis legend and former WTA No.1 Martina Navratilova recently spoke about Lia Thomas in light of Wisconsin governor Tony Evers vetoing a Republican bill that would ban transgender and gender nonconforming kids from playing in gender-aligning school sports teams.

The 72-year-old Evers has been supportive of the transgender community throughout his reign and has also stated that he would not sign any bill that harms the sentiments of the LGBTQ Community. However, Navratilova, was against this, stating:

"Hello Governor Evers- Don’t our girls deserve safe and fair competition also? Or they don’t really count???"

Navratilova has been quite stern in her stance regarding the participation of transgender athletes especially in women's sports. She is frequently seen raising her voice against several matters in the women's sports.

While responding to Tom Evers vetoing the bill, Navratilova responded to an X user stating that transgender people did not share women's locker rooms.

"Please provide data; or we just trade anecdotes. The only male genitals I’ve ever seen in a ladies room is on a diaper-changing table. Nothing keeps a man out of a ladies room except by social convention. Saying “use the one on your birth certif.” is a false solution," the user said.

Navratilova responded by saying that NCAA female swimmers had to share their locker room with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.

"Tell that to the women who had to deal with Lia Thomas in their locker room and swimming pool," Navratilova wrote.

Lia Thomas reportedly taking legal measures against World Aquatics

Lia Thomas

During her career for University Pennsylvania, Lia Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA championship title, attaining the feat in 2022.

However, Thomas hasn't been able to compete ever since as the World Aquatics introduced new rules that prohibited the participation of any athlete undergoing any sort of male puberty in the women's category. Besides World Aquatics, various other organizations involving different sports have tightened their screws regarding its transgender inclusion policy.

Owing to this, the 25-year-old is set to take legal action against World Aquatics to compete again in the global swimming tournaments including the Olympics as per reports of The Guardian.

However, Brent Nowicki, the executive director of World Aquatics has been quite firm regarding the organization's transgender policy. In a statement, Nowicki stated:

"World Aquatics remains confident that its gender inclusion policy represents a fair approach, and remains absolutely determined to protect women’s sport. "

Moreover, Thomas has hired the Canadian law firm Tyr to fight the case in the Court of Arbitration of Sports in Switzerland, the highest hierarchical sports court in the world.