When I was a kid, I was in love with Martina Navratilova, not romantically, but just as a viewer who would watch her, and I couldn't believe her athleticism, she was incredible in the way that Michael Jordan later would be incredible to watch too.
I was so into Martina Navratilova, I went to the store, and I sat in an aisle, and I read her book, because I didn't have the money to buy it, and it was about how she ate to win. I forget what it was called. It might have been called "Eat to Win." I can't remember.
But she was like: "Here's how I eat before I go exercise and before I win at tennis," and it was all about carb-loading, she was always eating spaghetti and breads and all this stuff. And so that's what I did.
I started eating all these carbs, heavy carbs, and they were delicious, and I got fat and so, it wasn't all her fault. I'm not trying to blame her. I'm just saying that that's how much I loved Martina. She was inspirational to me.
But that's over now, and that's over because she's been publicly going against trans women.
Now I don't know a ton about the trans issue, but I do think about the empathy that some people don't have for trans people. And this is what I would want to say to Martina Navratilova:
Martina Navratilova, imagine if you were born as Martina Navratilova and then you're like:
"I'm a woman," and you're walking around, you're thinking "I'm a woman" and then you look in the mirror or you look down at your body and you're like, "But I'm in the shell of a man," and then you're like, "Oh my god why do I have this man suit on? Because I'm a woman, I'm clearly a woman." And then you try to go play tennis and then they go, "Sorry, Martina Navratilova, you can't go play tennis in the women's field because even though you say you're a trans woman, that is just not going to fly."
You know what I mean? Like, think about how crushed you would be. That's the thing. I think there's this disconnect with certain kinds of people. They don't understand the empathy of what it must be like to look at your body and think: "OK I look like one sex or one gender, but internally I know I'm this other gender."
And then you have bigoted people like Martina Navratilova and J.K. Rowling and other people (I don't mean to pick on those two women, I just am more disappointed in them because I used to like what they gave to the world.)
I just don't understand the anti-trans thing.
I don't get it.
I am not trans and I'm not a woman so I don't feel like I have a complete grasp on the emotionality of all of it.
But what I do understand empathetically is:
Why attack human beings who just want to live their lives?
I don't get that. I don't understand.
Imagine then all of a sudden you have some role model, like Martina Navratilova or J.K. Rowling publicly attacking you. All the time.
What Martina Navratilova and J.K. Rowling are doing is a form of bigotry, in my mind.
Imagine you like Harry Potter. Imagine you love Martina Navratilova. And yet you're a trans person and they're attacking you. That can't feel good.
And I don't know why people like Martina Navratilova and J.K. Rowling and other people are bigots. Were they just born with some part of their brain where they don't empathize with people?
I continue to empathize with J.K. Rowling and Martina Navratilova as human beings. I also think they're wrong and I think they're making the world worse.
I'm not saying I'm an expert on any of this stuff. I'm just a normal human being and I just don't understand it. I don't understand this.
But I do know that the next time I eat spaghetti, I am not going to be thinking about Martina Navratilova except very negatively.
Blugh on you Martina Navratilova, blugh.
