Tennis great Martina Navratilova lashed out at a Biden administration official for posting a video with a mustachioed Drag Queen dressed as a Boy Scout in a mini-skirt.
In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, at the beginning of October, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland chatted with drag queen Pattie Gonia in celebration of LGBT History Month.
Haaland asked the “outdoor advocate and climate movement icon” why places like the Stonewall National Monument are “so important tot telling America’s story.”
“Queer rights are more under attack than ever. And I think if we don’t acknowledge the past, we’re bound to repeat it,” Gonia, who paired knee-high boots and a dangerously close to indecent miniskirt with traditional Boy Scout uniform from the waist up, replied.
Is this a joke? The pathetic parody of women continues https://t.co/xxHa9hO64e
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) October 3, 2023
“So, at a place like Stonewall, this beautiful place, it’s a place where so much discrimination and hatred occurred against the queer community, but it’s also a place where resistance and queer joy and queer liberation happened.”
The Stonewall Uprising, a sequence of incidents involving law enforcement and LGBTQ+ demonstrators that transpired for six days beginning on June 28, 1969, during a raid on the mafia-run Stonewall Inn.
While it wasn’t the initial instance of a police raid on a gay bar, nor the first time LGBTQ+ individuals resisted, the Uprising greatly impacted the narrative surrounding LGBTQ+ activism within the United States.
“I think we need to not ignore hate as it exists today,” Gonia continued. “We need to acknowledge it, because it’s not just our past, it’s our present. And we need to work together to build a more equitable and just future.”
Navratilova, who won 18 Grand Slam singles titles during her more than three decade-long career as a professional tennis player, blasted Haaland for the video.
“Is this a joke? The pathetic parody of women continues,” she replied to the Biden official’s post.
The tennis legend, who is a lesbian, wasn’t the only one to knock the video. “Expecting people to take this seriously feels like gaslighting,” someone replied.
“Halloween is awesome, and they look like they are celebrating it early,” another wrote along with laughing and clown emojis.
“That dude needs to be recruited for the Stonewall basketball team. Domination,” somebody else joked.
Navratilova got into a heated exchange with several commenters on her post. Writer Michael Musto pointed out that “butch lesbians” historically faced the same kind of ridicule for being “not really a woman.”
“We should all embrace each other,” he wrote. “And this is a drag queen, not a trans person. They’re certainly not trying to pass for female!”
“And how exactly are we supposed to know the difference?” Navratilova shot back. “And please do not compare males to butch females. Thank you.”
Musto said that the tennis player could tell the difference by looking at their profile or asking them, which he said that he personally figured out right away, then verified.
“A woman laying in the hospital shouldn’t have to ask,” Navratilova objected.
“He’s openly male! And I’m talking about how OTHERS compare butch females to males and that’s why you should be more sensitive,” the writer continued.
“And yes, I will compare queers to each other. We’re all oppressed, often by each other,” he added.
“Yeah, well – at this time it sure feels like lesbians and women in general are on the wrong end of this equality equation. But thanks for the explanation,” Navratilova concluded the conversation.
Another commenter pointed out that Gonia looked like “a bad caricature of Wyatt Earp in drag.”
Narvartilova noted that she actually missed the mustache because she had not been wearing her glasses while watching the video.
“But in any case – some trans look like drag queens with facial hair so unless you ask, you can’t tell. And maybe get called a bigot anyway…” she noted.
When one person asked how Narvartilova was followed by “so many genuinely good celebrities,” she calmly replied: “Because maybe they care about females more than you do.”