Tennis icon, Billie Jean King, turns 80 today!

I saw her just last night on a PBS show about women and sports. Still relevant, still kickin' ass!

Happy Birthday, Billie Jean!

She was one of the few women we 70s girls could really look up to. Her influence was huge. A true trailblazer and great woman.

Happy Birthday, BJK!

She really is an icon on so many fronts. She does not get enough credit.

Billie Jean is not my lover, she's just a girl who claims that I am the one.

During my years in NYC, I ran into lots of famous people.

The biggest kick I ever got was the day Billie Jean hopped out of a town car and, clad in a power suit, confidently strode into a building in front of me.

Now that’s a star!

My grandma.

r5 Was she doing the Crocodile Rock?

She was just on Masked Singer. One of the few singers I actually guessed. The woman is an icon.

I'm so old, I remember when she was a straight, Nixon-loving, Republican, basically, she was Pam Schriver. Even when her ex outed her, Billie insisted she was "bi", and still stayed married to Larry, and still continures to profit off his name. if she had just written Marilyn a fucking check

---The 90 days that shook women’s tennis arrived with little warning in the late spring of 1981. Billie Jean King, the tour’s iconic founder along with eight other women a decade earlier, had just been eliminated in the first round of a tournament outside Orlando. She had no idea that a maelstrom was about to engulf her until the next day, when she returned to her hotel after an outing and found stacks of phone messages waiting for her. That’s how she learned Marilyn Barnett, a former girlfriend, had outed her in a Los Angeles court filing on April 30, 1981, and was now suing her for financial support.

Martina Navratilova, then only 24, did have some advance knowledge her personal life was about to become a story, too. When a reporter for the New York Daily News asked Navratilova for her reaction to King being outed, Navratilova confided to him during the interview that she identified as bisexual but didn’t feel she could publicly admit she was in a relationship with a woman because the WTA Tour could lose its major sponsorship with Avon, and perhaps others.

Navratilova’s U.S. citizenship was still pending as well, and she also feared that being openly gay would be a disqualifier. The reporter initially granted Navratilova’s request to not publish the story, but just days after she received her citizenship, the Daily News decided to run an article after all on July 30, 1981. The headline: “Martina fears Avon’s call if she talks.”---

Avon never called.

Martina is much more of an iconic women's athlete to me than Billie Jean King, for the reasons stated in R9 as well as Martina being so outspoken about the insanity of allowing transwomen athletes to compete with women. Billie Jean is one of those who claims against all available evidence that once they've had some cross-hormones, transwomen's bodies are somehow just like women's so they should compete as such.

BJK was no Nixon lover. LOL. Do you think that just because they were Californians? Her 20th birthday was the day JFK was assinated. No matter her politics - or likely her parents - she evolved because she saw how poor people were treated in tennis, and women in general. Unfortunately the sport is WORSE now, racquets cost too much, you have to be wealthy to play, afford club memberships, attend top tournaments. Nothing is done to attract the masses, just the rich.

Martina who?

Her family—"straight out of Archie Bunker," according to Larry—was solid, traditional Protestant middle class, fired by hard work and a fear of God. Even now, her parents would like to see her abandon all this gallivanting around the world and settle down and have some kids. Growing up in Long Beach, Calif., Billie Jean deviated little from the values of her happy home. Her father, a fireman, was also a devoted sports fan, and so the daughter's participation in sports was not considered aberrant any more than her deep religious conviction. After all, going back at least as far as Jo March, little girls have been tolerated as tomboys.

Despite her nearly compulsive call for change within tennis, Larry swears she is basically conservative. So as not to use inflammatory words, she never refers to herself as a "feminist" or "women's libber," preferring the broader "equal opportunist" or "EO," but then, not long ago she tastelessly boasted, "Christ, I'm blacker than Arthur Ashe."

I got it from a blood transfusion!

Team Martina!

R9 does know what he/she is talking about. Read her recent autobiography and learn a bit of hostility about both men’s and women’s professional tennis. It’s a very interrelated take.

BJK’s role in getting professional women’s tennis up and running is an incredible story- all while she is grappling with her sexuality. She is incredibly honest about her struggle. The important point is that she evolved into one of the worlds most effective advocates for LGBT and women’s rights.

And FYI R9, she and Larry remain close, including Iliana.

History, not hostility.

…and Ilana, Not Iliana- lol

She's a trailblazer.

I saw her in a fur coat the time i saw her in NYC. Fuck her.

^^ what a sad bitch you are.

Billie Jean and Dusty Springfield ate at the Y together in the 70s.

r16, You're right, I feel a guilty for criticizing such a great humanitarian. I should/will read her book. I'm butt- hurt because she didn't come out in 1975 when it would have meant a difference to me personally. The "Bi" thing always annoyed me. When I came out in 1978, sex was a political act. I didn't chase straight men. It didn't seem fair to me that you could have the best part of being gay, the sex, while pretending to be straight or "bi". I suffered for my orgasms, not like you whippersnappers of today.

Liberace hadn't met the right woman, Elton was married to fish, Capote and Warhol were freaks, Paul Lynde was a joke, Gore Vidal was an enigma and Ellen was a teenager. No one was out and most people thought we should be killed, just like the bible says.

BJK is many things, but "honest" is not one of them. She continually goes out of her way to rewrite tennis history to make herself out to be the singular figure and minimizing the role of Gladys Heldman (Who? Exactly) and others in the develpment of the professional tour. She was a huge fan of Ayn Rand and encouraged Martina to read her, as well. She came out when she was nearly 70 after repeatedly coaching Martina to "in" herself. This is not to say that she has not done a lot for sports and women in sports, but not nearly as much as she says. Rita Mae Brown tore her to shreds in her memoir, and while RMB might have her own issues, others have corroborated much of what she said.

I wonder if Renée Richards will reach out to wish her a happy birthday.

[quote] You're right, I feel a guilty for criticizing such a great humanitarian. I should/will read her book. I'm butt- hurt because she didn't come out in 1975 when it would have meant a difference to me personally.

NOBODY in the public eye was coming out in 1975.

PS it's not all about you.

Of course it is, what else would they have come for?

More false information above- . BJK came out all the way long before 70. Her being bi in the beginning of her process probably was her truth- after all she was married to a man. She chronicles her experience and evolution and internalized homophobia in detail in her autobio.

BJK has given lots of credit to her peers at the time and Gladys. In fact she has never in any way ever implied the pro tour in its early days was anything but a group standing together- many times she said alone we have no clout. Fact is she was the leader- in place at the right time.

She was also a helluva champ who sacrificed a lot of success on the court to the grind of getting a tour and an organization going.

King is Queen!

[quote]Elton was married to fish

That's where you lost me, grandpa R23.

[quote]Rita Mae Brown tore her to shreds in her memoir

Rita Mae Brown is so crazy she should be on medication. She's been a piece of work FOREVER. Additionally, Billie blamed Rita for telling Martina to drop her as a doubles partner in favor of Pan Shriver. Rita was jealous that Billie may have had an affair with Martina. Blah blah blah, lesbian drama.

BJK was in her mid 30's when Martina teamed up with Shriver, I'm sure that's the main reason she went with Pam.

BJK/Glayds/Joe Cullman deserve the credit for the pro tour for women. I always admired BJK for admitting, as an athlete who did not smoke, Virginia Slims was a godsend. Actually no other brand could have probably sexed up women's tennis the way Slims did. Avon was a pretty dull sponsor, geez they wanted Tracy Austin as their cover girl.

Um, no, R32. Billie Jean King was THE DOUBLES MASTER at any age. Shriver was a neophyte.

R33=Ilana Kloss

Yeah, but Martina didn't want BJK tallying up more Wimbledon doubles titles, and playing OPPOSITE her, if need be, was the way to stop it. Martina was no dummy.

R34 = no knowledge of professional tennis