Former tennis player Martina Navratilova caused a racket over a seemingly simple tribute to LGBTQ+ History Month this week. The legendary athlete and out lesbian slammed Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for including a drag queen in a video celebrating LGBTQ+ Americans’ place in the nation’s history, calling the performer a pathetic parody of women. In the video, Haaland and drag queen Pattie Gonia spoke outside New York’s Stonewall National Monument, the site of a 1969 clash between gay men, drag queens, and police, which marked the start of the modern fight for LGBTQ+ rights. Navratilova seemed incensed by Gonia’s appearance despite drag’s undeniable role in the LGBTQ+ movement. The tennis veteran responded to the video saying “The pathetic parody of women continues.” One reply to the comment tried to remind Navratilova that the drag queen was, in fact, a parody and not a transgender woman, and the athlete was swerving into intentionally transphobic territory with such comments. While Navratilova was hailed as an LGBTQ+ trailblazer after coming out in 1981, she has been a vocal opponent of transgender women competing in women’s sports. In August, she called the U.S. Tennis Association’s (USTA) policy on including trans women 'unjust' in a post on X, formerly Twitter. #Queer Up Gay Culture