Billie Jean King takes on the Republicans!

PHENOMENAL WOMAN: I’m going to try and not go on and on about how Billie Jean King is one of the great heroes in my life. She has been such an inspiration and the fact that I’ve gotten to interview her three times and meet her twice after admiring her for so long was just about more than I could take!

Okay, just one paragraph about my great admiration for BJK! Not bad. I usually go on for two or three.

On to the news:

The tennis legend is speaking out against Republicans in the US Congress who she says are waging ‘an epic battle’ against women’s health care choices.

‘I’m so appalled by what we’re seeing in Congress right now,’ King wrote in an email this week. ‘First, House Republicans held a hearing on women’s access to birth control coverage that included a panel with five men and no women. Then they changed their own rules and refused to televise testimony from women’s right advocate Sandra Fluke.’

King, 68, is working with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and encouraging people to sign the petition One Million Strong Against the Republican War on Women.

‘Republicans want to silence women but I refuse to sit on the sidelines,’ King wrote. ‘You may know me from my tennis career, but some of my biggest victories came off the court–for fairness, equality and progress for women.’King said she is speaking out now to send ‘Republicans a clear, unmistakable, and powerful message.’

Billie Jean, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, was one of the founders of the current women’s tennis tour, founded the tour’s union, founded the Women’s Sports Foundation, founded World Team Tennis, fought for the passage of Title IX which resulted in more equality for female sports at the high school and college level.

Oh yeah, she also beat Bobby Riggs in a Battle of the Sexes match at the height of the women’s liberation movement in 1973 and during her career, won six Wimbledon singles titles, four US Open singles crowns and many more titles in singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

Thanks for always fighting the good fight Billie Jean!