Dr. Renée Richards is 92 years old. In 1977, Richards — born male, working as an ophthalmologist — sued the United States Tennis Association for the right to compete in the US Open as a woman. A judge ruled the USTA had violated New York State's Human Rights Law. Richards played. Made the doubles final. And for nearly five decades, that lawsuit stood as the founding myth of the trans-in-sports movement.

Now Richards says the whole thing was wrong.

"I was selfish," Richards told CNN in a feature published this week. "I was looking out for myself."

Richards went further. Asked whether trans women should compete in women's sports today, the answer was blunt: "I don't think it's fair. It's not enough of an age difference." Richards retired from professional tennis in 1981 at age 47 after competing against players like Martina Navratilova, Chrissie Evert, and Tracy Austin. In 1979, Richards played Hall of Fame player Nancy Richey at a women's 35-and-over championship at Flushing Meadow.

The admission comes as a new biography hits shelves this week — "Finding Renée Richards: The Groundbreaking Story of Tennis's Trans Pioneer," written by trans and nonbinary sportswriter Julie Kliegman. Even in the context of a sympathetic biography, Richards couldn't maintain the party line.

And the candor didn't stop at sports. Richards called being transgender "a curse" and added, "I would trade in a nanosecond my existence as a transgender." When asked about the bathroom panic — the progressive talking point that conservatives are obsessed with who uses which restroom — Richards dismissed it: "That's all just stupid. Those are stupid people."

The left has spent years framing anyone who questions trans athletes in women's sports as a bigot. Legislatures that passed fairness-in-sports laws were called hateful. Parents who raised concerns were told they were on the wrong side of history. Martina Navratilova — the tennis legend who initially backed Richards in 1977 — became a vocal opponent of trans women in sports and got attacked by the same movement she'd once supported.

Now the person whose 1977 lawsuit created the legal precedent says the critics were right. Not partially right. Not "raising valid concerns." Right.

The interesting detail buried in the CNN piece is how Richards was outed in the first place — by journalist Richard Carlson, father of Tucker Carlson. Richards's gender identity became public not by choice but by exposure, which adds a layer of irony to a story already drowning in it.

Activists will try to spin this as one person's regret, not a referendum on the movement. But Richards isn't some random voice. This is the founding case. The precedent. The name that gets cited in every legal brief defending trans athletes' participation rights.

When your founding father calls the founding act selfish, that's not an opinion problem. That's a structural one.