ERASING PENNY WONG’S SHAME
“We shouldn't airbrush Margaret Court or anyone else from our history,” argues Fairfax’s Julia Baird.
“We shouldn't airbrush Margaret Court or anyone else from our history,” argues Fairfax’s Julia Baird.
“We are a mad, shortsighted, often awful and contradictory species,” Baird continues:
Margaret Court has provided ample evidence of that this week, with bizarre and ignorant remarks as she attempted to explain her boycotting of Qantas because of its support of same sex-marriage …
It's not surprising that sometimes we want to scrub ugliness out of our history and embarrassing names off our buildings …Fair enough, too. Why honour such disgrace? But the dilemma is this: by continually rebranding history we risk obscuring history and erasing our shame – a shame that forces us to tell the truth about our past, and understand that this past still shapes our present.
OK. But speaking of scrubbing ugliness “out of our history”, “erasing our shame” and telling “the truth about our past”, Baird and all other gay marriage advocates seem to have forgotten that Margaret Court in 2017 holds exactly the same opinion on gay marriage as Julia Gillard and Penny Wong way back in the distant and remote era of July 2010:
Openly gay Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong says she agrees with her party's opposition to same-sex marriage.
"On the issue of marriage I think the reality is there is a cultural, religious, historical view around that which we have to respect," she told Network Ten on Sunday.
"The party's position is very clear that this is an institution that is between a man and a woman."
Senator Wong said she respected Labor's view of marriage as an institution between a man and a woman.
"I am part of a party and I support the party's policies."
It was a different time. One important difference between Court and Labor’s former gay marriage opponents: Court has the courage to express her honestly-held personal beliefs. Here’s another Fairfax view on the future of Margaret Court Arena, with the author’s characteristic gibberish wordcount filler in bold:
Still, when it all comes down to it, whether or not you support the idea of a boycott by fans and players of the Margaret Court Arena until it is renamed, there really is a problem, Houston. For better or worse, for richer or poorer, one of Melbourne's two main tennis arenas now bears a name that, for a huge swathe of Australia – whether you agree or not – really is a byword for bigotry. There'll be speeches, thunderous columns, tears and resolutions, but, in the long haul, the name will not stand.
Fine. Let’s rename it the Peter FitzSimons Arena. Oh, wait ...
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