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Tennis champion Martina Navratilova has reignited debate about how transgender athletes compete at the elite level.
The nine-time Wimbledon champion and gay rights activist said rules in some sports that allowed transgender women to compete in women's tournaments were "insane", and that she would not want to play against a trans athlete.
Her comments infuriated transgender rights groups.
Writing in Britain's Sunday Times, Navratilova said trans athletes competing in women's tournaments was "cheating".
"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," she wrote.
Navratilova first drew criticism from equality activists and trans athletes when she tweeted in December: "You can't just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women."
"To put the argument at its most basic: a man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organisation 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.
'She doesn't know what she's talking about'
Transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey believes Navratilova cannot speak with any authority on transgender issues.
"To say people are cheating and doing all that shows that she has absolutely no idea what hormone treatment and testosterone deprivation actually has on the body," she said.
"That for me highlights that she doesn't know what she's talking about, and as a result there's no reason to listen to her.
"I mean, I really couldn't care less. People are saying she's an athlete so she knows, but I'm an athlete and if I wasn't trans I would have no idea what's involved."
Mouncey was ruled ineligible for the 2018 AFL Women's draft. She is heading to Japan this year for the Handball World Championships, and hopes to qualify for the Olympics.
There does need to be a discussion, professor says
Mouncey told The World Today it was disappointing to hear such comments from a long-time gay rights campaigner.
"A lot of people within the LGBT movement who identify as gay see the battle as won; they're accepted and so nothing else really matters," she said.
"Trans people know that now that being gay is generally accepted, a lot of them don't care. So for me it's nothing new and nothing surprising."
Western Sydney University Emeritus Professor of cultural research David Rowe said he believed there did need to be a discussion around the subject.
"One thing we obviously have to avoid is transphobia and discrimination — that goes without saying," he said.
"But there are issues. For example, [does] someone who is formerly a man [have] an inherited physical advantage?
"There is fear among some women that, just at the point where women's sport is having its day in the sun, [there is a] possibility that men could invade that space using the transgender process."
The ABC has contacted Navratilova for an interview.
Topics: tennis, sexuality, women, sports-organisations, australian-football-league, lgbt, discrimination, sport, united-states, australia
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