Tennis great Martina Navratilova has
signed a letter in support of an Idaho law that bans transgender
women and girls from playing on female high school and college sports
teams.
Idaho Governor Brad Little, a
Republican, signed House Bill 500 in March.
Navratilova was one of 309 athletes to
sign the letter in support of the law. The letter was organized by
Save Women's Sports.
The letter calls on the board of
governors of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to
“reject the call to boycott Idaho for protecting the integrity of
women's sports.”
Civil rights activists have called on
the NCAA to move men's basketball tournament games out of Idaho in
response to the law's passage.
LGBT sports blog Outsports
was first to report that Navratilova, who is openly gay, had signed
the letter. Only the names of eight athletes had been previously
released to the public.
Save Women's Sports criticized the
publication of Navratilova's involvement with the campaign. “It is
disgraceful that Outsports and other like-minded extremist
activist groups are bullying and harassing women simply for standing
up for fairness in the sports they love.”
Navratilova has previously voiced her
opposition to transgender women participating in female sports teams.
(Related: Martina
Navratilova apologizes for calling transgender athletes “cheats.”)