John McEnroe: I’ll get Elton John to hold same-sex weddings on Margaret Court Arena
Tennis superstar John McEnroe has pledged he will get Elton John to host a mass same-sex wedding on Margaret Court Arena when Australia legalises it.
The American player, who won seven grand slams during a legendary career, made the comments following Margaret Court’s prolonged attack on the LGBT community.
Court, who has won more grand slam titles than any other player, said she was boycotting Qantas Airways last month because of its support for same-sex marriage.
Condemnation from lesbian grand slam champion Martina Navratilova, Australian number one Sam Stosur and world number one Andy Murray followed, but the legend did not back down.
In fact, Court – who has a stadium named after her at the Australian Open grand slam – has doubled down, comparing LGBT activists to Hitler and saying trans children are influenced by the devil.
This led Navratilova to call Court “a racist and a homophobe,” adding that she was “demonising trans kids and trans adults everywhere.”
In response, Court said there was a militant gay conspiracy acting against her.
McEnroe, who spent 170 weeks at number one, was always happy to speak his mind as a player, and he still suffers no fools.
He didn’t want to rename the Court arena, but speaking to reporters at the French Open as “the self-appointed commissioner of tennis,” he said he “might have a viable solution.
“Keep the name and when same-sex marriage becomes legal in Australia, I will personally call my good friend Elton John to host the biggest same-sex, mass wedding ceremony ever seen in Margaret Court Arena.
“Margaret, that’s just the kind of guy I am.”
He added: “All right, the self-appointed commissioner of tennis wants to make one thing very clear: he is a strong advocate of same-sex marriage.
“I actually don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t give them the right to be as miserable as everybody else.”
Without stopping, he then launched back into a barbed, hilarious takedown of Court.
“Margaret Court is a legend in our sport with 24 grand slam singles titles, and 62 overall.
“Okay, most of them were before the Open era, but who’s counting? 34 to be exact.”
McEnroe then jokingly pointed out that her resentment against LGBT people may have sprung from being bested by lesbian tennis legend Billie Jean King.
“She did lose the first battle of the sexes to Bobby Riggs,” he said.
“Hold on, she lost to Bobby Riggs and then Billie Jean King beat the s*** out of Bobby. Now I think I know where that hatred comes from.”
“Margaret Court is telling us tennis is full of lesbians,” he added, which she did indeed do.
“The way I see it, there are three options regarding this statement.
“Number one: this is true and who gives a f***? Number two: this is not true and who should give a f***?
“And number three – this is half true and should we really give a f***?”
He had yet another attack to spear Court with, referring to an embrace between two players during a French Open match last week.
“Oh and Margaret, one last thing – don’t get all worked up about del Potro holding Almagro crying in his arms,” he said.
“It’s not what you think. It’s just a decent human being consoling a friend in distress.
“We all need more of that these days. Just a decent human being, doing a decent thing.
“Do you know how hard it is, still, to come out in 2017? Just think about that.”
