Tennis champion Margaret Court says transgender children are ‘of the devil’
Margaret Court has made more anti-LGBT comments
Former tennis player Margaret Court has expressed more anti-LGBT views ahead of her return to the Australian Open.
The former Australian tennis legend, who has faced controversy for likening gay people to Hitler and claiming lesbian tennis players “recruit” younger athletes, has decided to turn her fire on transgender children.
Margaret Court says transgender kids are ‘of the devil’
In a sermon at Victory Life Centre in Perth on Sunday, she said: “I can go on television and say ‘this is what the Bible says,’ and it’s like opening a can of worms.
“You’d think I let a torpedo off or something, because they hate the word of God.
“That LGBT in the schools, it’s of the devil, it’s not of God… you know, when children are making the decision at seven or eight years of age to change their sex.
“Just read the first two chapters of Genesis, that’s all I say. God made male and female.
“It’s so wrong at that age because a lot of things are planted in this thought realm at that age, and they start to question, ‘what am I?'”
Margaret Court made more offensive remarks ahead of her return to the Australian Open
She added: “You know, with that GBT, they’ll wish they never put the T on the end of it, because particularly in women’s sports, they’re going to have so many problems.
“You have got young people taking hormones and having changes, by the time they are 17 they are thinking, ‘Now I’m a boy and really I was a girl’.”
Court went on to apparently call for gay people to “overcome” their sexuality.
She said: “Even with the gay side of things, you’ve got gay marriage, but they’ve still got a conscience.
“On Christmas Day I had somebody call and start to talk to me… these things are happening, and it’s our conscience.
“There will be people in here who are perhaps dabbling in things and struggling, but what’s impossible to man is possible to God. It’s overcoming, it’s temporal, it’s subject to change.
“He loves everyone in here, whatever you’ve been into.”
Australian Open will pay tribute to Margaret Court
The comments come ahead of Court’s return to the Australian Open in January to mark 50 years since her 1970 Grand Slam victory.
Tennis Australia invited Court to attend the event as a special guest after she hit out at her exclusion.
The body said: “Tennis Australia respects Margaret’s unmatched tennis career and welcomes her to the Australian Open, particularly in this milestone anniversary year.”
However, the same press release attempted to distance the body from Court’s views.
It said: “As often stated, Tennis Australia does not agree with Margaret’s personal views, which have demeaned and hurt many in our community over a number of years. They do not align with our values of equality, diversity and inclusion.
“Our sport welcomes everyone, no matter what gender, ability, race, religion or sexuality, and we will continue to actively promote inclusion initiatives widely at all levels of the sport.”
