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Martina Navratilova says Billie Jean King’s trans-athlete stance ‘doesn’t square’ with her own words
Martina Navratilova wants Billie Jean King to explain herself.
King is one of the most important figures in the history of women’s sports, a tennis icon who helped build the modern women’s game and spent decades fighting for equal opportunity, equal pay and respect for female athletes.
But King has also publicly supported trans-identifying biological male athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
In a 2025 interview with The Telegraph ahead of Wimbledon, King called the broader transgender-athlete debate in sports "a nightmare" and said people should listen to transgender people’s stories and make them feel included.
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That position has frustrated Navratilova, another tennis legend and longtime advocate of gay rights and women’s sports, because King has also publicly acknowledged the physical differences between men and women.
Asked how King could reconcile those two positions, Navratilova said the contradiction is obvious.
"I honestly don’t know because it doesn’t square," Navratilova told OutKick.
Navratilova was responding to a clip of King discussing the obvious physical differences between men and women. In the clip, King said men are generally bigger and stronger, have different skeletal systems and bigger hearts, and that women never claimed they were physically the same as men.
That’s the entire reason women’s sports exist in the first place.
In 2020, King joined nearly 200 athletes in supporting a friend-of-the-court brief against an Idaho law that barred trans-identifying male athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
"There is no place in any sport for discrimination of any kind," King said at the time. "I’m proud to support all transgender athletes who simply want the access and opportunity to compete in the sport they love."
That's the gap Navratilova is pressing.
"I think she thinks that they play fair and square, meaning males identify as women, take all the hormones and do everything, like Renée Richards did 50 years ago," Navratilova said. "And that it’s just nice to include everybody."
But Navratilova said the issue can’t be reduced to kindness or inclusion.
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She offered a hypothetical scenario: a high school boys basketball team holds tryouts, 10 boys make the team, and five boys who don’t make the boys team then try out for the girls team. If they make it, which they almost certainly would, five girls lose their spots.
"That’s not equality," Navratilova said. "That’s a total takeover."
And it’s not just about who wins, she said. It’s about roster spots, podium spots, awards, prize money, privacy, safety and the entire purpose of female-only categories.
For Navratilova, the answer starts with keeping sex-based boundaries intact.
"The solution is obvious," she told OutKick. "No male bodies in women’s sports and no male bodies in women's sex-based spaces for many different reasons, not the least of which is women’s rights to safety, dignity and fairness and privacy."
Navratilova said her private conversations with King have made King's public position even more frustrating.
"Billie Jean has repeatedly told me over the last four or five years that she would love to talk to me about it, that she defers to me because I know a lot more about it than she does," Navratilova said.
But Navratilova said the conversations she expected, never really happened.
"Without talking to me really and listening to what my points were, she just went her way and put out the statement by her and the Women’s Sports Foundation about inclusion and all this stuff," Navratilova said.
That, Navratilova said, is what surprised her most.
"I don’t think she really has heard the other side of the debate, so to speak," Navratilova said.
Navratilova said she wants King to answer the question directly.
"Please get Billie Jean on record," Navratilova said. "I’d like to know how she explains it because she hasn’t been able to explain it to me."
OutKick contacted King and the Women’s Sports Foundation seeking comment and offering King an interview. Neither responded.
And Navratilova is not alone.
Nancy Hogshead, a three-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer, civil rights lawyer and former Women’s Sports Foundation president, went even further.
Asked whether King’s comments on male advantages suggested she was starting to come around, Hogshead rejected that premise.
"Oh no, she’s always known that," Hogshead told OutKick. "She’s a hypocrite, she’s a total hypocrite."
Hogshead said she could understand confusion several years ago, before more research and high-profile cases brought the issue to the forefront.
Her own view, Hogshead said, was not always what it is now.
"I was in favor of it too," Hogshead said. "I thought this was about inclusion and nondiscrimination. I thought it was fair."
That has changed.
"I was wrong," Hogshead said. "I was dead wrong."
Hogshead pointed to sex-eligibility disputes involving Caster Semenya, the Lia Thomas case and research on male puberty and athletic performance as part of what caused her to rethink her position.
She said the same evidence should matter for King.
"She knows, but she hasn’t made the connection," Hogshead said. "As she says, men are faster, stronger, bigger lungs structurally, but hasn’t made the connection of like, oh, so that’s unfair to the girls to have to compete with that."
Hogshead said her frustration with King and the Women’s Sports Foundation predates the transgender-athlete debate.
"I wouldn’t say I left," Hogshead said of her 2014 departure from WSF. "I would say I got fired because I would not sign a contract."
Hogshead alleged the contract would have restricted her from speaking publicly about sexual abuse and harassment involving athletes.
Asked why she believed a women’s sports organization would want to limit her ability to speak on that issue, Hogshead pointed to what she described as King’s aversion to backlash.
"Because Billie Jean didn’t want to go into any room and face hostility or having somebody be against her," Hogshead said.
Hogshead connected that episode to the current fight over transgender athletes in women’s sports.
"I think it’s more political for the same reason, for the exact same reason that she didn’t wanna be involved in the sexual abuse issue or she didn’t want the Women’s Sports Foundation to be involved," Hogshead said. "It’s hard to be the tip of the spear."
To Hogshead, both fights come back to the same issue: whether women’s sports leaders are willing to take unpopular stands when women and girls need defending.
OutKick separately asked the Women’s Sports Foundation whether Hogshead’s role ended because she refused to sign a contract restricting her from speaking publicly about sexual abuse in sports and whether King was involved in or aware of that contract decision. WSF did not respond before publication.
That leaves a central question unanswered.
If men have physical advantages over women, and King says they do, then why should biological males who identify as women be allowed into female categories?
Navratilova’s position is especially notable because she has personal history with Renée Richards, the transgender tennis player who sued to compete in the women’s draw at the 1977 U.S. Open.
Richards later coached Navratilova.
That history matters because Navratilova didn't come to the issue as an opponent of inclusion.
"Because of Renée, I was completely all-in for inclusion," Navratilova said. "Most of us welcomed Renée into the fold."
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But Navratilova said Richards competed at a very different moment and under very different circumstances.
Richards was 43 and not in peak playing shape when competing against women, Navratilova said. At the time, Richards was essentially a one-off case.
"It was only one because she won the right to compete in a court of law," Navratilova said. "There were no others. Even if there were other transgender people, they would have to sue for the right to compete."
That has changed.
In recent years, trans-identifying biological male athletes have competed in women’s and girls’ sports across the country, from high school track and field to college and junior college volleyball to cycling, swimming and other sports.
Navratilova said the change forced her to reconsider the issue in a way she did not have to when Richards was the only example. But, more importantly, Richards also has a new perspective on the issue.
"Renée herself now says she should not have been able to compete," Navratilova said. "She realizes now she had an advantage."
Richards made a similar argument in a 2024 position paper published by Sports Illustrated in 2025. "I believe that having gone through male puberty disqualifies transgender women from the female category in sports," Richards wrote, adding that a "retained physical advantage persists" even after testosterone reduction
That’s why Navratilova says it’s no longer enough to rely on the language of inclusion without answering the competitive question.
"Boys are faster, stronger, quicker than girls," Navratilova said. "And so, if it doesn’t matter who wins, why do they have to compete as a girl? If they feel like a girl, they can still compete with the boys if they don’t care where they end up. Why is it the girls that need to suck it up?"
Navratilova came out publicly as a lesbian in 1981 and became one of the most prominent openly gay athletes in the world.
That’s part of what makes the backlash against her so striking.
Navratilova has been called homophobic, transphobic, bigoted and worse for her position on women’s sports. She told OutKick the attacks are especially frustrating because many of the people attacking her don’t know what it was like for gay athletes when she came out.
Asked what she makes of being called homophobic, Navratilova dismissed the idea.
"It’s just stupid," Navratilova said. "I came out before they were born, so they don’t know what it was like."
Navratilova said the criticism from within the LGBTQ advocacy world has been painful because she still believes in equal rights.
"I respect everybody’s right to human rights, equal rights everywhere," Navratilova said.
But she said equal rights do not include the right for male-bodied athletes to enter female sports or female-only spaces.
"You do not have a right to come into my space," Navratilova said.
That doesn't mean the verbal attacks haven't stung.
"What does it make me feel like? Just sad," Navratilova said. "Just really sad that they would just name-call rather than have a discussion and totally discount what I went through and twist it around."
King’s legacy in women’s sports is undeniable.
She fought for women to have opportunities, respect, prize money and a professional tour of their own. She famously beat Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes," a moment that became larger than tennis and helped cement King as a symbol of women’s equality.
But that history is exactly why Navratilova and Hogshead say King’s current position deserves scrutiny.
Women’s sports were not created because women lacked talent, discipline or courage. They were created because biological sex matters in athletics.
King knows that. She has said so herself.
That’s why Navratilova wants an answer.
How does King square a lifetime spent fighting for women’s sports with a position that allows biological males to compete against females?
So far, King hasn’t answered that question for OutKick. And according to Navratilova, she hasn’t answered it for her, either.
After losing my daughter, I learned where the immigration crisis really begins
My youngest daughter Katie was killed when an intoxicated illegal immigrant slammed into the back of the vehicle she was riding in at nearly 80 miles an hour while it sat idle at a stoplight. Ever since, I have been trying to understand how reckless public policies allowed something so horrific, and so preventable, to happen.
Katie’s death forced me to look beyond slogans and political talking points and ask harder questions about what America’s immigration system has become, who benefits from it and who ultimately bears the costs when governments refuse to enforce meaningful standards.
The more I examined the data, the more I began to notice an aspect of the problem that often seemed ignored or dismissed in public debate. Perhaps because acknowledging it had become politically uncomfortable.
According to recent data from the Center for Immigration Studies, newly arrived immigrants now possess significantly lower levels of educational attainment than earlier waves of immigration.
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During the border-surge years engineered under the Biden-Harris administration and overseen by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the composition of migration shifted heavily toward poorer regions of Latin America, bringing larger numbers of individuals with limited formal education and fewer workforce skills needed in a modern, technology-driven economy.
That matters because advanced economies increasingly depend on productivity, skills and institutional capacity. Educational attainment strongly correlates with earnings, poverty rates, tax contribution and long-term dependence on public systems.
America in 2026 is not the industrial America of 1920. Low-skill labor no longer guarantees upward mobility, even for many native-born Americans struggling under rising housing costs, inflation, healthcare expenses and stagnant wages. Yet policymakers continue expanding migration flows while insisting there will be no meaningful fiscal or social consequences.
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But consequences exist whether political leaders acknowledge them or not.
Lower educational attainment is closely associated with lower earnings, higher poverty rates and greater demand on public systems. School districts shoulder the costs of language services and educational remediation, often straining already struggling districts. Hospitals provide emergency care that is frequently never fully reimbursed, with taxpayers ultimately covering much of the burden. Cities face mounting housing pressures, while welfare systems expand to accommodate growing needs.
My own family has lived both versions of America’s immigration story. Decades ago, my parents came to the United States legally for the opportunity this country offered and not for benefits or special privileges that increasingly incentivize lawlessness surrounding immigration today.
This is personal for me.
Katie’s killer, Julio Cucul-Bol, a Guatemalan national who used a Mexican alias while in Illinois, admitted through an interpreter in state court that he had no formal education and was unable to meaningfully communicate in either English or Spanish.
So, I have to ask the question Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and many other politicians never will: What purpose did allowing Bol into this country actually serve? How did it strengthen America, improve our communities, or better the lives of American citizens?
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My daughter is dead.
Reasonable people can debate immigration levels and legal pathways. But no serious nation can maintain public trust while weakening enforcement and insisting there are no downstream consequences for public institutions, fiscal stability, or social cohesion.
Many countries benefit enormously from large-scale emigration. Remittances from migrants working in the United States generate billions in foreign income while also relieving domestic political pressure.
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In effect, the United States increasingly subsidizes the consequences of governmental failure abroad. Rather than fixing conditions for their own citizens, struggling governments can export portions of their poverty to the United States while importing remittance dollars back home.
That dynamic may benefit political elites on both sides of the border, but it does little to encourage long-term reform, self-sufficiency, or stable institutions. In many cases, mass unmanaged migration may actually delay the economic and civic improvements those societies ultimately need most.
A truly moral and compassionate approach should not simply encourage people to flee struggling nations indefinitely. It should encourage the development of lawful, stable and prosperous societies where citizens can build meaningful lives in their own countries with dignity and opportunity.
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The United States should be an example to be emulated; a nation built on lawful behavior, strong institutions, accountability and opportunity. Not one that increasingly allows itself to be taken advantage of by governments unwilling to fix conditions for their own people.
Migrants should be drawn to America because of the opportunities created by economic freedom and social stability, not enticed by self-serving politicians offering taxpayer-funded benefits while refusing to address the consequences of weak enforcement.
States like Illinois increasingly respond to the departure of productive citizens not by confronting the policies driving people away, but by attempting to replace those losses through mass migration encouraged by expansive benefits and weakened standards. Administrations like Biden-Harris accelerated that approach nationally during the border-surge years.
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That is not a serious long-term strategy for national prosperity or institutional stability.
Every public policy carries tradeoffs, and citizens should not become collateral damage to reckless immigration policies pursued for short-term political gain.
A serious immigration policy would begin with honesty: honesty that educational attainment matters in advanced economies; honesty that mass low-skill migration creates fiscal burdens; honesty that weak enforcement and sanctuary policies carry real-world consequences; and honesty that America cannot permanently function as the economic and social safety valve for the developing world without eventually weakening itself.
Compassion without limits is not governance. And no nation can indefinitely absorb the unresolved economic and institutional failures of other countries while expecting its own stability, cohesion and prosperity to remain strong forever.
Ben Sasse reflects on life, parenting, future of country in Ruthless interview
Former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse delivered a heartfelt reflection on his life, parenting, and politics to the Ruthless Podcast in an exclusive interview released Tuesday morning.
"Death sucks, but I'm not really scared," Sasse told the Fellas. "People are surprised by the answer. And I’m like, well, I guess I’ll talk for a little while."
Sasse was diagnosed with metastatic stage-four pancreatic cancer in December. Throughout the interview, Sasse emphasized the importance of being rooted.
"We have funeral plots in Arlington, Nebraska, 14 miles east of our house along the river in Dodge County, Nebraska," Sasse said. "I don’t want my family to ever give that up."
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Sasse’s career has taken him across the country and, at times, away from his family for extended periods of time. Receiving degrees from Harvard and Yale, he worked as a management consultant before coming back to academia.
After serving as the president of Midland University, Sasse was first elected to the Senate in 2014. Sasse resigned from his seat in 2023 to become the President of the University of Florida.
In the interview, podcast co-host Comfortably Smug, himself a recent father, cited a recent op-ed by Sasse’s daughter and asked for parenting advice.
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"I recently just had a son," Smug mentioned. "How did you manage to raise such self-actualized individuals? She said the line that opened with where instead of asking them, like, ‘how was your day?’ You asked them, ‘who did you serve?’ This makes an individual more outward-looking and trying to be a contributor to their community and their friends rather than being a consumer."
The Nebraskan responded by emphasizing the importance of unconditional love and the importance of teaching your children the values of hard work and service to others.
"Your parental goal should be for them to know unconditional love, and then in response to live a life of gratitude, where there are some expectations around them," Sasse responded. "And so she says in her piece that she knows she has unconditional love from us, and that we expect her to grit and grind through it and go and serve other people, not be narcissistically obsessed with herself."
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The conversation also touched on how technology has changed family life, the economy, and American politics.
"You'd be sitting in Republican Senate lunch, and dudes are scrolling through social media reading comments on Twitter, on their press releases," Sasse said. "I'm like, you know, those are mostly Russian bots. They're mostly not even real… Like if you’ve got eight digits that come at the end of your name, that's not Cynthia from Norfolk, Nebraska. But now I just couldn't care less about the tribal stupid [things] that people might yell about."
Podcast co-host Josh Holmes detailed how many of Sasse’s former colleagues in the body have appreciated his perspective over the last couple of months.
"I talked to a number of your old colleagues in the Senate over the last couple of months who are just deeply appreciative of the time you’ve taken to share wisdom in this particular part of life," Holmes told Sasse.
Sasse has authored two books on this intersection of parenting and the future of the country: "Them: Why We Hate Each Other—and How to Heal" and "The Vanishing American Adult."
Since his diagnosis, Sasse has also launched the Not Dead Yet Podcast.
Cancer survivors saw major improvements in sleep and well-being with one weekly practice
Yoga is known to boost relaxation, strength and flexibility – and now a new study has found the practice could improve cancer survivors’ quality of life.
A randomized trial led by the University of Rochester Medical Center found that a four-week yoga program significantly reduced insomnia, fatigue, anxiety and mood disturbances after cancer treatment.
The findings were presented last week at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.
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The study was conducted across multiple U.S. community cancer care sites, including 410 adult cancer survivors averaging 54 years of age. Around 75% were breast cancer survivors, and none of them had practiced yoga regularly within the prior three months.
The participants were randomly assigned to two groups. Half of them received only standard survivorship care without the yoga, while the other half received standard care and were also enrolled in the Yoga for Cancer Survivors (YOCAS) program.
As part of the YOCAS program, the survivors completed two instructor-led 75-minute yoga sessions each week, including 18 Gentle Hatha yoga and Restorative yoga poses, breathing exercises and mindfulness training.
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Based on questionnaires completed by the patients, the survivors in the yoga group experienced "moderate-to-large" reductions in overall mood disturbance, "small-to-medium" reductions in anxiety and "medium-to-large" reductions in fatigue, the study found.
The improvements in mood and fatigue appeared to be linked to yoga's beneficial effect on sleep quality, according to the researchers.
"This indicates that cancer survivors have an option to alleviate these cancer-related side effects at the same time, without adding another drug," lead investigator Yuri Choi, PhD, of the Wilmot Cancer Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, New York, told Fox News Digital.
The study did not reveal any major safety concerns or serious adverse events related to the yoga practice.
The study did have some limitations, chiefly that the findings are preliminary and have not yet been peer-reviewed for a medical publication.
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"The sample in our clinical trial was relatively homogeneous, with most participants being women (96%), breast cancer patients (75%), Caucasian (93%), and having some college or higher education (82%)," noted Choi.
"We are adapting our intervention to reach all cancer patients and survivors, including the creation of a mobile app to reach people in rural communities."
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The research also excluded patients with metastatic cancer (whose disease had spread to other parts of the body).
The total study was only four weeks, so more research is needed to determine long-term benefits.
If the findings are confirmed by peer-reviewed publications, this could lead to recommendations for structured yoga programs as a non-drug supportive therapy for cancer survivors, the researchers noted.
Some yoga studios may use different names for Gentle Hatha and Restorative yoga, such as Foundations Yoga or Healing Yoga, Choi noted.
"Survivors should also look for certified yoga instructors who have experience working with cancer patients/survivors or individuals with other challenging health conditions," the researcher advised. "They should not be afraid to ask their oncology team for referrals to qualified instructors in their community."
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Choi also noted that the research did not reveal whether other types of yoga, such as heated-room or rigorous-flow yoga, are safe or beneficial for cancer survivors.
The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Karmelo Anthony trial ignites rival camps that threaten to get in jurors’ heads in track meet stabbing: expert
The first day of jury selection in the case involving a Texas teenager accused of stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf to death following a confrontation at a high school track meet was ushered in by demonstrators from both sides taking to the streets outside the courthouse, raising concerns about a potential outside influence impacting the jury.
Karmelo Anthony, 18, is charged with first-degree murder stemming from Metcalf’s death.
The case sparked outrage both in the local community and nationwide, with conversations surrounding race and self-defense rights taking center stage.
On Monday, as prospective jurors arrived at the courthouse to be considered for selection, a crowd of demonstrators descended outside the court-ordered perimeter to voice their support for both sides of the case.
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Positioned on opposite sides of the street, video footage shows the groups chanting, playing instruments and carrying signs both in favor and against Anthony – with the crowd of counter-demonstrators also carrying a large sign with Metcalf’s photo.
"We declare, we decree, Karmelo is free," supporters of Anthony can be heard saying outside the courthouse.
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The presence of supporters from both sides presents a unique challenge for the attorneys seeking a fair trial in a case that has been marred by public perception and media attention, according to Texas defense attorney Larry Taylor.
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"It goes to reinforce potential negative biases, as well as potentially even create some new ones," Taylor told Fox News Digital. "And so to walk by individuals who are angry or shouting, it could get into the mindset of a potential juror."
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As jury selection remains underway, Taylor noted that any indication that a potential juror has been impacted by the demonstrators could be grounds for removal.
"If I see someone potentially nodding their head to the rhythm of a chant, it can be taken as something that they either agree with or have some kind of feeling toward," Taylor said. "And that could potentially have that juror struck."
Before the trial was set to be underway, a Texas judge issued a gag order in the case – effectively barring anyone involved in the trial from speaking to the media. Cameras, livestreams and video recordings are also banned from inside the courtroom, and demonstrators must stay outside of a specific perimeter surrounding the courthouse.
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"[The judge] doesn’t want people coming up there in large numbers who feel that the case isn't necessarily going their way, and they have some kind of reaction to that," Taylor said. "You don't want witnesses to be pointed out or to be harassed or threatened."
According to Taylor, the judge presiding over Anthony’s case must walk a fine line between protecting the demonstrators’ freedom of speech and the defendant’s right to a fair trial.
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"You have the battle of the First Amendment versus the sanctity of the Seventh [Amendment]," Taylor told Fox News Digital. "Having access to the courts that is uninhibited and fair. So you have the judge weighing these constitutional rights and saying, ‘Okay, you have a right to protest, you have a right to be vocal, but I am going to set a distance away from my court so that I will have a fair and impartial jury."
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The possibility of allowing outside influences to impact the outcome of the trial could be monumental, as Taylor insists the judge must prioritize shielding the jurors from any potential biases.
"If things go crazy, and demonstrators are threatening witnesses as they're walking in, and people seem rattled, then the case just doesn't flow," Taylor said. "You're setting yourself up for an appeal or a mistrial, and having to do this all over again."
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Anthony was indicted on the first-degree murder charge by a Collin County grand jury stemming from the alleged stabbing at a Frisco track meet on April 2, 2025.
"For weeks, my team has been presenting evidence to the grand jury," Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said after the indictment. "Today, I summarized that evidence, and I asked the Grand Jury to return a first-degree murder indictment against Karmelo Anthony — which they did."
"With that indictment, the case now moves formally into the court system," Willis added.
Anthony is accused of fatally stabbing Metcalf inside a Memorial High School team tent during the sporting event, with investigators alleging Anthony told Metcalf, "Touch me and see what happens," before retrieving a knife from his bag.
The alleged stabbing was due to a confrontation between the two teenagers, according to police.
Immediately after the incident, authorities said Anthony told responding officers he acted in self-defense, telling officers, "I’m not alleged, I did it."
Mike Howard, Anthony’s attorney, has insisted that the details surrounding what lead up to the confrontation have not been disclosed to the public, and will be released in court.
"We expect that when the full story is heard, the prosecution will not be able to rule out the reasonable doubt that Karmelo Anthony may have acted in self-defense," Howard said following the indictment.
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As the court prepares to hear opening statements in the case, Taylor said the presence of the demonstrators outside the courthouse could bring a sense of peace and support for both families.
"Both families in essence have lost sons," Taylor said. "Karmelo Anthony will never be the same – he could potentially be imprisoned. And so seeing supporters of your child gives hope to the family that actually lost their son. Seeing people out there in support of their son gives them a hope that justice will fall their way."
Fox News Digital reached out to Anthony’s attorney and the Collin County District Attorney’s office for comment.
Fox News Digital's Stepheny Price, Peter D'Abrosca and Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.
The NFL's main social media accounts remained silent about Pride Month on its first day
The annual June 1 kickoff to Pride Month came and went on Monday and the NFL's X account that serves over 36 million followers and its Instagram account that serves 32 million followers did not mention the event.
Let that sink in for a moment.
The league accounts that, in the past years, have told fans that "football is gay," that "football is lesbian," that football is queer, transgender, bisexual and, for everyone, were silent on the issue. The National Football League's social media accounts this year stuck to, well, football.
The league posted about the Myles Garrett trade to the Los Angeles Rams. About the A.J. Brown trade to the New England Patriots. About Odell Beckham signing with the New York Giants. And Raymond Berry dying.
So, this may mean something.
Or nothing.
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For conservatives, Christians and others, it is a small victory they hope extends throughout the entire month and eventually to the league's individual teams, most of which embraced Pride Month on its first day. Nine of the 32 teams did not recognize Pride Month on Monday.
For some gay activists, the NFL's action (or inaction) on social media on Monday means they're hoping some admin corrects an oversight as early as Tuesday morning. Otherwise, it's a big loss for those activists that want their sexuality celebrated and amplified by the country's most popular sports league.
Whatever it means, this is where we are in 2026: Corporations, small businesses, universities, individuals, and yes, sports leagues are being watched on the first day of Pride Month to see how they handle the divisive issue.
We say divisive because there are no winners amid the scrutiny. Recognizing the month or opting out sends a message that upsets somebody regardless of the choice.
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Major League Baseball, the NBA and even the NHL recognized the start of Pride Month on Monday. The professional hockey league did so by changing its logo to rainbow colors — a betrayal of its own corporate branding.
So, the NFL was different than its professional sports counterparts for at least one day. It was also different than it has been in the past when it did salute Pride Month on its first day and even once came up with celebrating LGBTQ history month.
This doesn't mean the NFL is no longer supporting gay issues. It supports those all year long on its website and via other means, including fundraising events and promotions. But this messaging omission this time — intentional or otherwise — was notable.
As to the league's teams, the nine teams that declined to mention Pride Month are generally the same group that have done so in the past.
The New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints did not recognize Pride Month on social media. Most of those did not last year, either.
And this is where we remind you, this is a snapshot in time. The NFL may offer a Pride Month nod in the coming hours or days after publication of this piece. The teams that opted out might as easily opt in over the coming days.
The Indianapolis Colts, for example, have been back and forth on the Pride Month celebration posts the past two years. But they were the NFL's first team to post about Pride Month this year.
And why do we count? Because we live in an increasingly populist society where one side insists it must celebrate its sexuality and wants others to join in, and the other side has increasingly resisted and, in the extreme, believes the celebration of one sexuality over an entire month is insufferable.
All one has to do is read the replies to the teams to understand both of those are so.
It is also interesting that Pride Month and the corporate pandering it encourages create some strange dynamics. Example:
WASHINGTON COMMANDERS, WHO ADVOCATE FOR GAY PRIDE, CELEBRATE MUSLIM HOLY DAY
The Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans and Minnesota Vikings are among the teams that saluted Pride Month on Monday.
But that seemingly makes those teams seem quite conflicted on social media because in March they also celebrated the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, with a shoutout to Eid al-Fitr.
The Vikings celebrated the Muslim holiday on X while the Texans and Eagles did so on Facebook.
The Muslim religion, like Christianity and Judaism, has strict teachings against homosexuality.
But the Commanders, Vikings and Eagles were not the only ones presenting a paradox to the celebration of gays with the orthodoxy of the Muslim religion on Monday.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a verbose (for X) post about how it would take more than a month to "honor the contributions of queer and transgender New Yorkers."
Mamdani was born in Uganda, is a Sharia Muslim and has consistently praised his home country while also publicly embracing his religious identity.
Except that Uganda in 2023 enacted the Anti-Homosexuality Act that imposes life imprisonment for same-sex acts and the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality. And traditional Sharia treats homosexual acts as punishable offenses.
Yes, quite inconvenient for someone celebrating the start of Pride Month.
Rubio braces for Hill grilling as Republicans join bid to curb Trump's Iran war powers
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to face tough questions on Capitol Hill this week as Congress threatens to curb President Donald Trump’s war powers, while the administration pushes for an end to the conflict with Iran.
Rubio will testify in four congressional hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday on the State Department's budget for the upcoming fiscal year. But the Trump official is likely to be grilled on the ongoing negotiations to end the war and whether the U.S. military campaign should continue against Iranian forces and the country’s nuclear capabilities.
The U.S. and Iran have yet to agree on terms to end sporadic fighting. Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and potential sanctions relief have emerged as key sticking points in negotiations.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he "couldn’t care less" if the stalled talks were over, in an interview with CNBC.
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"I don’t care if they’re over, honestly," Trump told the outlet. "If they’re over, they’re over. If they’re not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring."
The president’s comments followed fresh rounds of fighting over the weekend that tested the fragile ceasefires in place since early April. The U.S. military has shown no signs of ending its blockade of Iranian ports while Tehran has continued to flex its hold over the Strait of Hormuz.
Rubio's Hill appearances come as both the House and Senate could advance legislation this week that would halt U.S. involvement in the war, absent congressional authorization.
A successful war powers resolution would likely be a symbolic blow to the administration given an expected presidential veto and the lack of a veto-proof majority.
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But the president may suffer a political setback as a growing number of Republicans are souring on Trump’s handling of the war.
In the House, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Barrett, R-Mich., have joined Democrats in voting to curtail the president’s war powers — and more GOP lawmakers could follow suit this week.
The Trump administration has repeatedly argued that the 1973 War Powers Resolution requiring congressional oversight of military action infringes on the executive branch.
Beyond the war powers debate, Rubio is also likely to face questions about Trump accepting a deal that stops short of dismantling Iran's nuclear program. The Trump administration has repeatedly said it would never agree to anything that allows Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Some Republicans with hawkish national security views have warned Trump against agreeing to a deal that would let Tehran continue to project power across the region.
"Our commander in chief needs to allow America's skilled armed forces to finish the destruction of Iran's conventional military capabilities and reopen the strait," Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., wrote on social media in late May. "Further pursuit of an agreement with Iran's Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness. We must finish what we started. It is past time for action."
Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment.
John Gotti pal: I stashed $10M in my kid's toychest
"I was the chief of staff of the Gambino crime family."
That's how Lewis Kasman describes his role at the side of legendary Mafia boss John Gotti.
Kasman spent years with Gotti and the Gambino crime family and is now peeling back some of the secrets and revealing what that life was like at the top of the American Mafia.
"I had a big toy chest in my attic in my house in Woodbury filled with millions of dollars in it," he says, in amounts varying from $6 to $10 million, depending on the month, saying the Gambino family earned more than $100 million a year.
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"I loved it. I loved it all. I loved the power...to have the boss's ear, and I had unfettered access. It was amazing."
Kasman, who is now 68 years old, opens up about his friendship and working with Gotti for a Fox Nation exclusive documentary, "Gotti's Guy," which can be seen on the Fox Nation streaming site and Fox One.
Throughout the late 1980s and early '90s, as Gotti reigned over the underworld, Kasman was right there, in the inner circle. He was a familiar fixture accompanying the Don, the made men and Gotti's lawyers. He was routinely referred to as "Gotti's adopted son" by the news media and frequently interviewed and quoted defending Gotti during his various trials.
In the Fox Nation program, Kasman describes how he grew up as "a Jewish kid on Long Island," who went to sleep-away camp and had a bar mitzvah, to being the trusted sidekick and sounding board to the most infamous Mafia Don since Al Capone.
"We had a brotherhood me and him," says Lewis. "I had no agenda and he had no agendas. He just wanted my friendship and my voice to speak for him when he didn’t want to speak or couldn't speak, because of his position."
Lewis says Gotti needed someone like him, an objective sounding board outside the circle of mobsters, who was loyal, direct and had no ax to grind.
"I could go in places where John didn't want to go, and I could talk to Skippers (Capos) the way John didn't want to. As a boss, you have to carry yourself a certain way. He would never go and ask for anything. That was not John Gotti's way."
"I never crossed the line. See, I knew my boundaries. I had the most boundaries that anyone in life could have with John Gotti, and I knew my place. He trusted me and I trusted him."
"He was a man's man," he says. "I used to say, Grandpa, you're a legend in life. You’re gonna be a legend when you pass, but you're a legend in reality. You are legendary now. I used to walk around the garment center, guys in trucks would honking their air horns. How's the boss? How's the chief? Wherever you would go, they loved this guy."
"He was a superstar, an A-lister celebrity. The crowds, the people, the pictures. It became surreal."
WATCH: FORMER MAFIA INSIDER REFLECTS ON JOHN GOTTI'S COURTROOM VICTORIES:
But with time, Kasman reassessed his life and his role. He says back then, in his 20s and 30s, he had put aside his moral issues and ignored any ethical concerns about hobnobbing with Mafia murderers but now sees the error of his ways.
"When I look back, you could disappear at any time," he says. "He was the Mafia, and he was a killer, and he was a tough guy. Tough guy. Very tough guy."
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"I did not lie to myself. I knew who he was, and I knew what he was capable of. But I wasn't in fear of him. I respected him for who he was and the kind of Boss he was of that family. And if he was my father, my natural father, I couldn't have loved him more."
During one of Gotti's trials, his flamboyant lawyer Bruce Culter, called Kasman "one of the finest young men I know," and said "he has a great friendship and business relationship with John Gotti."
But the Gotti family has had other names for their former friend.
John A. Gotti, Gotti's son, wrote scathingly about Kasman in his bestselling book "Shadow of My Father."
He branded Kasman "traitorous scum," a "turncoat," who became "the adopted confidential informant of the FBI," who is a "perjurer, thief and traitor" who turned on his father… and the Gotti family, by slipping false information to the Feds.
After the elder Gotti died, Kasman got in trouble with the law and he became a confidential informant for the FBI, taping conversations with mobsters and at one time it turned out, Mr. Gotti's wife as she recovered from a stroke.
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"What infuriated me about Kasman," Gotti's son wrote, was "that he had recorded my mother on a visit with her, shortly after her stroke. She was recovering from brain surgery, and had been sedated. As directed by the FBI, are there no limits to what these low lives will do at the behest of their government masters? No."
Kasman admits he was directed by the FBI to secretly tape the younger Gotti, but says he wound up inadvertently wearing the wire on the visit to his mother.
"It was a mistake," he now says and deeply regrets it.
In 1996, Kasman served six months in federal prison after pleading guilty to lying to a grand jury investigating the Gambino crime family.
In 2010, Kasman again pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to time served for obstruction of justice and money laundering. Gotti's eldest daughter Angela was quoted as calling him "a piece of s—," saying "somebody’s got all my father’s money. He was the one holding it."
Kasman now resides in Florida and leads a quiet life away from the streets of the city that were once Gotti's turf.
As for missing those halcyon days and the intense public interest surrounding Gotti, he is now wistful.
"I don’t miss it," he says. "I miss him."
"Gotti's Guy" is now streaming on Fox Nation. Also, watch the second season of "Stories of the American Mafia" on Fox Nation.
LA business leader says crime, wildfire fallout fueling Pratt surge as voters seek change: 'People are angry'
SANTA MONICA, CA — A business leader and former city council candidate is reacting to Spencer Pratt’s surge in the Los Angeles mayoral race by pointing to crime, the recent wildfires, and the inhospitable business climate as the reason why voters are discontent with the status quo.
"I think a lot of people are concerned about what's happening, they really don't know how to fix this, and I think the crime, the homelessness, the addiction, all the above behaviors of what's happened in our city as politicians that are causing this, I think a lot people are seeing that," John Putnam, the president of Putnam Brands & Putnam Accessory Group, told Fox News Digital.
"And I think Spencer's actually bringing the light in a real way. He's pretty basic with his delivery of his issues and I think that's resonating a lot. Even if you don't want to vote for him, you're listening, though and I think that's resonating with a lot of people."
Putnam, a former candidate for Santa Monica City Council in 2024, told Fox News Digital that even though his town of Santa Monica doesn’t vote for LA mayor, the winner’s platform will have a "trickle down" effect all across the county.
"California's got a big issue, but the city, especially where we live, Santa Monica, is a byproduct of what's happened in Los Angeles and across the world," Putnam said. "In Santa Monica alone, we're a people-driven economy. 80% of our revenue comes from outside this city. We need revenue being generated from people that are coming here to visit."
Putnam’s company, which he has run for 40 years, is based near downtown Los Angeles, and he told Fox News Digital that it’s clear when you drive around the city that the business climate is being significantly handcuffed by crime, homelessness, high taxes and other factors.
"It costs so much to operate a business here," Putnam said. "Out of 250 cities that were surveyed a few years ago, Santa Monica came in number one of being the most expensive place to do business and that's because of all the regulation, all the other aspects.
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"But on top of that, if you can't create an inviting environment and a safe environment and a clean environment, there's no hope. I mean, the bottom line, there is zero hope in that arrangement. So we have to do something quickly and the pain is there. We, just as voters, hopefully, will determine what we have to do to change that."
Crime has been a highly talked-about issue in the mayoral race between Pratt, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and progressive Councilwoman Nithya Raman. Putnam says that over the past few years, crime has gotten worse overall, despite statistics that say specific violent crimes are down.
"There's all sorts of stats, it’s worse, everyone's trying to sugar coat it in different ways, but the stats are out there, they’re saying crime is down, I think violent crime is down across the country, but all this petty stuff is happening," Putnam said.
"It's come in all neighborhoods. I mean you know it's down in the south side of Los Angeles, east. It's everywhere. You know even here in Santa Monica, we're definitely being victims of this behavior of crime, and the drug addiction that's running rampant in our city that's causing this kind of criminal activity doesn't really satisfy anyone. It doesn't protect us. It doesn't make us feel safe, and it doesn't help our community just to grow."
Roughly a year and a half ago, the Los Angeles area was devastated by wildfires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades that killed 31 people. The Palisades fire crept within a few miles of Putnam’s home in Santa Monica and destroyed more than 6,000 structures, including Pratt’s home.
Putnam told Fox News Digital that the fires, and criticism of Bass’s preparedness and response, is "definitely a point of every conversation" with Los Angeles residents as only a handful of homes have been rebuilt.
"People are feeling left out, they're not feeling like they're being helped," Putnam said. "I mean, their whole town, Altadena and Palisades were just destroyed. Beyond that, you had nail salons, you have all these hair salons, you had restaurants, these people are homeless from their businesses, their income and they aren't getting the love and the attention they deserve, we need to come together and help those people."
"That's what's frustrating. I think people are angry, but also just really concerned. And I think this is really, Spencer's really done a good job of bringing that out and letting people know this is not acceptable, and we have a choice here."
Pratt will face off in the mayoral primary on Tuesday night against Bass and progressive City Council member Nithya Raman in an election where the top two candidates will move on to the November general election; however, if a candidate receives 50% of the vote, they become the next mayor outright.
FBI's next move in Nancy Guthrie case could finally expose suspect, expert predicts
LAS VEGAS — The FBI has been discussing bringing new tech tools into the Nancy Guthrie investigation, sources told Fox News Digital over the weekend.
They declined to elaborate.
Morgan Wright, the CEO and founder of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, said he believes the tools are likely focused on one of three areas Monday.
"The solution to this case is going to be, I think, something technical, something that they come up with — new ways of analyzing data," he told Fox News Digital. "I'm looking at the video, the video forensics, signals analysis, blockchain kind of stuff."
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Video forensics could include technology that enhances publicly known or unknown video to help identify either the suspect or his vehicle. Signal analysis could include cell-site or ad-tech data analysis. And the blockchain could expose whoever was behind the ransom and extortion attempts, whether they were legitimate or not.
"If I'm going to put it into three buckets, I'd say it's going to come out of one of those three buckets," Wright, the editor and host of the "Crime: Reconstructed" Substack and podcast, added.
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Investigative genetic genealogy could still provide a major breakthrough, he said, but that's not new tech.
NANCY GUTHRIE'S FRONT DOOR BLOOD EVIDENCE POINTS TO ‘SINGLE ABDUCTOR’: FORMER FBI PROFILER
He said he believes the publicly known evidence shows there was only one kidnapper involved, in part because only one person appears on video, and no one has come forward to claim the reward of over $1.2 million.
"I don't know that there's anything else to indicate a second person," he said.
That's likely why the suspect was seen struggling to obscure the camera and eventually took it with him, he added. Not to hide his face, which was already covered, but to mask the suspect vehicle.
LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST
"The blood trail stops at the edge of the driveway," he said. "So we know there was a car."
The investigation, which kicked off four months ago Monday after Guthrie's suspected abduction from her home in Tucson, has already involved the use of state-of-the-art Bluetooth detection deployed over the neighborhood in a helicopter and the groundbreaking recovery of Nest doorbell camera video.
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The Bluetooth "sniffer" was flown around the area in the hope that it could pick up signs from Guthrie's pacemaker device.
She did not have a cloud subscription for her cameras, and the physical device itself was missing before police arrived to investigate her disappearance. But the FBI and Google teamed up to recover images that show a masked man on her doorstep on the night of her abduction as well as several weeks earlier.
The Guthrie family is urging anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI. There is a combined reward of more than $1.2 million for information that breaks the case.
Anonymous tips can also be sent to Tucson's Crime Stoppers affiliate, 88-Crime, at 1-520-882-7463.