Billie Jean King to join State Dept event on gender equity

Tennis star Billie Jean King will be on hand for a State Department discussion focused on gender equity in sports, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

King, a 39-time Grand Slam champ, will join a virtual panel on Monday, alongside assistant secretary for educational and cultural affairs Lee Satterfield, International Tennis Federation Vice President Katrina Adams and filmmaker Dawn Porter, the State Department announced Thursday.

The group will “share their perspectives on gender and racial equity, visibility and representation, and inclusion in and through sports.”

King, 78, has been a longtime gender equality advocate. The founder of the Women’s Sports Foundation famously won the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” match against Bobby Riggs.

June 23 will mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibited sex-based discrimination in educational programs that receive federal financial assistance.