Martina Navratilova bashes the word “queer”, labeled with a painful history of endurance for the LGBTQ+ community
Martina Navratilova, who has been openly gay for a long time, defends an X user calling 'queer' a negative term to denote gay people.
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Martina Navratilova (Image via: Imago)
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova recently got involved in an X (formerly Twitter) debate regarding the usage of the word ‘queer’ and whether it was correct for other people to term gay people as queers.
Martina Navratilova, who has been openly gay since 1981 and is a popular gay rights activist, sided with a user who claimed that the word ‘queer’ has historically been used as a homophobic slur against gay men who suffered extreme violence along with it.
The debate started on the topic of whether the word ‘queer’ should be used at all. Some said that it is seen as a ‘badge of honor’ while others mentioned that it has been used as a negative term since time immemorial.
The argument escalated pretty quickly and the tone of the debate turned pretty serious with a user finally explaining why it is inherently wrong to use the word ‘queer’.
Shove your "queer theory" where the sun don't shine. "Queer" is a fundamentally homophobic slur, predominantly leveled at gay men who suffered extreme viloence along with it. Who the F*CK are you to lecture us about your f*cking 'THEORY' when we lived the PRACTICAL.The user said
It was this tweet that Martina Navratilova reposted on her account and wrote, “Right on”. To put things in context, the Queer Theory came to life in the 1990s and it is this perspective that questions the perception that cisgender and heterosexual identities are in any sense standard.
However, the details and controversies regarding the same are nuanced.
Martina Navratilova’s story of coming out as gay
Martina Navratilova has been openly gay since 1981 but she revealed in an interview that the path was not an easy one.
She could not come out as gay before getting her US citizenship, as back then, the situation was very sensitive, and she feared that she would get disqualified if her s*xuality became public.
Even after she got her citizenship, she could not come out instantly, as the WTA did not want any more controversy because there was already an ongoing scandal with Billie Jean King.
She thus asked the reporter, whom she had trusted with the secret, to wait a few more days. Unfortunately, he did not keep the trust and the next day it was in the news.
I said to him, 'No, I can't talk about it because of the sponsorship, this and that.' I asked him, 'You won't talk about right?' and he said, 'No, not if you don't want me to.' The next day it was in the paper - 'Martina cannot talk about her sexuality.She said.
However, the tennis legend revealed that she felt relieved that she did not have to hide her identity any longer. After losing to Tracy Austin in the 1981 US Open, she broke down in tears after being applauded by the fans as she finally felt accepted.
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Rishab Dutta
(794 Articles Published)