One of tennis’ four Grand Slams currently is taking place in France, but the main topic in the sport remains the anti-LGBT comments made by Margaret Court.
The Australian tennis legend’s list of supporters is dwindling after she made multiple controversial comments about the LGBT community, including that “tennis is full of lesbians,” in an interview with Vision Christian Radio, via The Guardian.
Her anti-LGBT comments — which also included her saying “transgender individuals are ‘influenced by the devil,'” according to Yahoo! Sports — along with her stance against gay marriage, have led multiple current and former tennis stars to criticize her and call for the Australian Open court that honors the 24-time Grand Slam champion to be renamed.
“I don’t see why anyone has a problem with two people who love each other getting married. If it’s two men, two women, that’s great,” No. 1 men’s tennis player Andy Murray said, via Yahoo! Sports. “I don’t see why it should matter. It’s not anyone else’s business. Everyone, in my opinion, should have the same rights.”
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova called Court “a racist and a homophobe” in an open letter calling for a change to the court name.
And Murray is one of the current players who hinted at a potential issue at next year’s Australian Open if the court’s name isn’t changed.
“For players to be in a position where you’re in a slam and boycotting playing on the court, I think would potentially cause a lot of issues,” Murray told The Independent. “So I think if something was going to happen and the players come to an agreement, if they think the name should be changed or whatever, that should be decided before the event starts. But I would imagine a lot of the players would be pretty offended. So we’ll see what happens.”
So, what does the 74-year-old Court, who’s now a pastor, think about all this? That it’s the United States’ fault.
“I think I’ve won more grand slams than any man or woman and if it is (renamed), I don’t believe I deserve it,” Margaret told Melbourne’s 3AW radio, via The Guardian. “They could probably get 100,000 petitions in 24 hours because that’s how they work. There’s a lot of money behind it, and it’s coming from America. …Yes, I believe there is (a conspiracy). I think the (gay) lobby, yeah. They are a minority in number but they do have a lot of money behind them.”
Thumbnail photo via Martin Richard/Presse Sports via USA TODAY NETWORK
