Firestorm Over Tennis Great Billie Jean King's 'Pro-Palin' Remarks

Remarks by openly lesbian tennis great Billie Jean King about Sarah Palin, the running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, have ignited the blogosphere, with King calling Palin "awesome," "honest," and "real."

But those comments don't mean that King believes McCain and Palin should win the election in Nov., according to an update to the original article, published Sept. 8 by the New York Observer.

The original article found the Observer catching up to King, who was presented with the 2008 Eugene L. Scott Award in a Sept. 5 ceremony.

When asked about Palin, King, a champion not only of the tennis world but for GLBT equality, said, "Now we're back to the [question of] experience."

Said King, "Remember how they were talking about how the experience for Hillary wasn't necessary? Do you notice how they're talking about experience again? I'm just cracking up. I'm just like, whatever!"

Added King, "I think Palin's great. I think she's awesome."

King continued, "I think she's honest, I think she's real."

King, who was already established as a professional athlete when she came out in the 1980s, was asked whether she thought that Palin, who acted quickly to quell rumors about her family by disclosing that her unmarried, 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, would have been so swift in putting details about her domestic life before the voters if her daughter, like that of current Vice President Dick Cheney, had been a lesbian.

Said King, "That was one question I had in my mind."

King continued, "I have no idea.... I think she'd embrace the child and then have to start thinking about the issue."

But it was King's comments about Palin that caught the interest of the blogosphere.

Commentators at the blog JoeMyGod posted an array of responses, several of which were to the effect that King and Palin were lovers or that King was infatuated with Palin.

Other messages were more reflective, with one thread examining King's comments in terms of its content, specifically the issue of how much the experience, versus the gender, of a candidate matters in American politics.

Wrote one commentator, "I don't understand what she's saying, unless she's mocking the Republican line. Hillary's experience was the key thing that people liked about her."

Wrote another user, "Whenever [Hillary Clinton] mentioned Obama had too little experience, he said she had too much. Apparently more voters agreed with him that too little experience is preferable to too much experience."

Added the user, "What I find particularly insulting is how it was said no woman would become President because she would always be running against a more experienced man.

"She would lose not because of sexism, but because people would prefer the candidate they felt was better qualified to run the country."

The user continued, "Finally, we had a situation in the primaries where the woman candidate had more experience and yet she lost to the less experienced male candidate."

The user went on, "King is just expressing the irony of how everyone (both Democrats and Republicans) keeps flip-flopping. No to Hillary Clinton because she has too much experience! No to Sarah Palin because she has too little experience!"

Added the user, "I say just break the damn glass ceiling and get it over with. If we keep waiting for the 'perfect' female candidate then we will never have a woman President."

Others disagreed with that conclusion, with one reader arguing, "We're not electing a symbol here; we're electing a chief executive (or in Palin's case, a potential one) whose political goals, and the ability to carry them out, are the only important factors."

Continued the reader, "McCain's got experience (although his cavalier choice of Palin brings his decision-making ability into doubt) but bad politics. Palin's got neither good politics nor proven experience."

As for Palin being "honest" and "real," one respondent took issue with that characterization, writing, "Hundreds of thousands of Alaskan kids who need comprehensive sex education would disagree. Lies can be by omission too."

Added the respondent, "Troopergate showed that she put bald-faced lies into emails to defame her brother in law," referring to what seemed to have been a case of Palin abusing her political power to pursue a personal vendetta.

Added the respondent, "Creationsism [sic] is a lie that has no place in public education.

"Honest? Real? We have very different definitions of those words, Billie."

Commented one user, "Sarah Palin is real because she's from some podunk town in Alaska? Well I have news. Small town life--as with big town life--can be absolutely grand. But there's as much dysfunction in small town life as anywhere."

Added another commentator of Palin, "[S]he's not HONEST. She's a fucking liar and it's being revealed every single day."

Continued the commentator, "I think Billie Jean has that sophisticate's detached view of the world. It's all just fun and games and nothing is real until you get some moose shooting wolf torturing twit from podunk alaska [sic] and then she's just so refreshing, it rouses the sophisticates enough to pay attention. Thus she becomes 'real' and entertaining and an amusement for a moment."

Reader feedback at Towleroad was similarly vigorous, with one reader posting the comment, "What, a female boomer feminist is voting for Palin solely because she has a vagina, and is ignoring the fact that her entire political career has been characterized by support for social issues that are anathema to feminist values? Shocker."

Added the reader, "I respect women, have always worked with and for women, and support the availability of family planning services. But if women vote for McCain/Palin (or any other right wing ticket) like this simply because one of the right-wingers is female, then they deserve to lose the right to choose."

Another respondent put what amounted to the same argument in a more concise statement: "Uterus FIRST! Gay rights, healthcare, environment, international safety, and a stable economy SECOND!!!"

Wrote another user of King's remarks, "She's obviously trapped in a sex vs. gender dichotomy. In this case make that a DYKE-otomy!!!"

Others upheld King's right to self-expression, with one blogger sarcastically commenting, "How dare BJK have an opinion about someone that differs from ours!!"

Wrote another, "Holy Crap a person voting on one issue. No one on this site would ever do that. Good for BJK."

As an update to the original story at the New York Observer noted, King subsequently gave voice to her political support of Barack Obama's campaign.

The Observer's update reported that King provided a statement to GLBT news site 356Gay.com in which the tennis champion clarified her position, saying, "Last Friday, reporter from the New York Observer asked me what I thought about Sarah Palin. I told her I thought Sarah Palin was honest and real. I believe that."

The statement went on, "But, that in no way should be viewed as an endorsement of any kind."

Added the statement, "I oppose many of the positions of Sarah Palin, particularly those tied to the LGBT community."

King's statement continued, "I am supporting Barack Obama and, in fact, I have lent my name to both Women for Obama and the Obama LGBT Steering and Policy Committee."