Homophobe Margaret Court refuses to attend Margaret Court Arena for Australian Grand Slam
(Photo by Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images)
Vocal opposer of same-sex marriage Margaret Court will not be attending the Australian Grand Slam, raising questions as to whether her lack of attendance is due to players petitioning to change the venue after she made a series of homophobic remarks.
Court, who has received an intense backlash over her homophobic vitriol, including her remarks that the introduction of same-sex marriage would lead to the cancellation of Christmas, led to several tennis players claiming that they would refuse to play at the tournament if the arena was not renamed.
Players such as openly gay player Richel Hogenkamp have voiced their concern at playing in a stadium which is named after Court, who wrote an open letter to Quantas Airlines stating that she would no longer fly with them after they voiced their support for same-sex marriage.
“I believe in marriage as a union between a man and a woman as stated in the Bible,” Court – who is now an Evangelical Pastor – wrote in The West Australian.
“Your statement leaves me no other option but to use other airlines where possible for my extensive traveling,” she added.
In spite of players voicing their concern over playing in the stadium, the tennis court is still named after the former champion.
When Court was asked whether she was avoiding the tournament for this reason, she replied “I don’t run from things, I face them.”
“I decided not to come across this year and do more crabbing,” she said to The Herald Son.
In the lead up to the same-sex marriage vote, in which 7.8 million Australians voted in favour of marital rights for gay and bi couples, the former tennis play remarked that gender fluidy is comparable to Hitler and is designed to “get the minds of the children.”
“So, that’s all the devil — that’s what Hitler did and that’s what communism did: got the mind of the children. It’s a whole plot in our nation, and in the nations of the world, to get the minds of the children,” she said to 20Twenty Vision Christian Radio.
