Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has incurred the wrath of transgender activists and their supporters after posting on Twitter that she believes that female trans athletes should not be allowed to compete against female born athletes because it is not “fair”

The 17-time Grand Slam champion from the Czech Republic, Navratilova, was responding to a question from one of her followers, said: “Clearly that can’t be right. You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women. There must be some standards, and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard.” She added: “For me it’s all about fairness. Which means taking every case individually… there is no cookie cutter way of doing things.”

The tweet  triggered an uproar on social media with the trans community branding her comments as “bullying” and “discriminatory.”

Dr Rachel McKinnon, who controversially won a women’s event at the UCI Masters track world championships and was born a male before becoming a female in her 20’s and identifies as a lesbian, was one of many who demanded Navratilova apologize.

“Genitals do not play sports. What part of a penis is related to tennis? How does that ‘level’ any playing field?” McKinnon posted “You realize I’m a world champion trans woman athlete?”

Martina did apologize, and deleted the original tweet saying, ‘it seems to be my decades of speaking out against unfairness and inequality just don’t count with you at all’, with McKinnon agreeing, saying, that Martina’s record of fighting for LGBT equality, ‘doesn’t change the fact that you did something very wrong today. Past good deeds don’t give someone a pass.’

Some social media users however expressed support for Navratilova suggesting she was the one who was “bullied” by trans-activists to deliver an apology after being “intimidated from telling the truth.”