Martina Navratilova was very brave to come out about her sexuality at a time when it was not as accepted as it is today.
Although same-sex relationships are legal and normal, in the majority of the world, there are still places where it’s not legalized. However, only a few years ago, even the most progressive countries were conservative when it came to it.
Former WTA legend Martina Navratilova is part of the LGBTQ+ community, and unapologetically so. She’s been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights for a long time and helped so many come to terms with accepting themselves as they are.
It took her a while to do the same because it was highly stigmatized, in some parts of the world criminalized to this day.
It took bravery, and it wasn’t without consequences. In a recent interview on ‘On with Kara Swisher’ podcast, Navratilova revealed that her coming out cost her a lot of money as she lost endorsement deals.
Nobody said no, but nobody said yes either. I can’t say how much money I lost by being out, but it’s in millions, there’s no doubt about that.
Unfortunately, it’s something that happens to this day. While legal in most countries, the community still didn’t find a lot of support in countries such as Saudi Arabia, and that’s why the recent move of a tennis tournament there was so debatable.
Some companies, still have interesting preferences, and that’s what happened to Navratilova. As she explained, the rooms went silent when her name was mentioned.
I got deals in Japan, but not in America. You didn’t see any commercials. And my agent back then said, ‘You know, when I’m in a meeting in Madison Avenue, there’s always advertisers, you throw in different names. The people get excited… when I throw in your name, the room goes silent.’
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