Cate McGregor delivers moving response to Margaret Court’s comments on lesbians and transgender children

CATE McGregor delivers a moving and powerful response to Margaret Court’s comments, but says she doesn’t support a boycott.

TRANSGENDER woman Cate McGregor has slammed Margaret Court’s rant about lesbians in tennis and transgender children, saying she was just aiming for the “low-hanging fruit”.

McGregor delivered one of the most moving and powerful responses yet to the former tennis champion’s comments during an appearance on ABC’s The Drum.

Court has caused controversy this week after suggesting transgender children were influenced by the Devil and were part of a mind control plot as seen in Nazi Germany.

There have been calls for Melbourne Park’s Margaret Court Arena to have its name changed after the former tennis champion also said she would refuse to fly Qantas due to the CEO’s backing of marriage equality.

When asked whether the comments were just a matter of free speech, McGregor said she thought they were, but in one respect only.

“Airbrushing a great player out of Australia’s sporting history by removing her name from that arena would be a mistake,” she said.

McGregor said she thought it was a strategic mistake for the LGBTI community to pile on the 74-year-old, given that her views were in accordance with the teachings of Court’s faith. It also gave the views prominence and rendered her a victim.

Cate McGregor on ABC's The Drum

“She was a national treasure and piling on to her will erode our moral authority,” Ms McGregor said.

But it was her direct tackling of some of Court’s comments about transgender children that really hit home, and highlighted the impact on those already suffering.

McGregor said she knew a lot of loving families with young children who were grappling with gender.

“Those parents only want ... two things,” she said. “They want their child to be happy, and primarily they want them to not kill themselves.”

McGregor said the risk of self-harm among these children did not need to be compounded by “gratuitous, unsubstantiated nonsense”.

She also noted that talking about the LBGTI community in respect of grooming children for sex, was “pretty poor taste”.

“Coming from a Christian clergywoman in the current climate, if anyone’s forfeited their moral authority in this domain it has to be the Australian Christian churches who’ve presided over systematic child abuse that we’ve learnt about through the royal commissions recently,” she said.

"Our lives are difficult enough." Here's @CateMc3273's full response to #MargaretCourt as a Christian, transperson & sport lover #TheDrum pic.twitter.com/Xl0evv3DPj

— ABC The Drum (@ABCthedrum) June 1, 2017

McGregor pointed out that transpeople made up probably a maximum of 2 per cent of the population.

“We face enormous ridicule, discrimination. No one wants to be transgender, we don’t chose it, we’re born like it,” she said. “Everyone of us grapples to deal with an authentic, decent life.”

As someone who is also a “believer”, McGregor said she was sickened by Court’s brand of fundamentalist Christianity.

“I happen to be a believer, to think that I arrived at my life decision without a process of agonising discernment is ... a gratuitously offensive thing to say to me when she had no experience of my life or parental background,” she said.

Although there are many other sins in the Bible, McGregor said she also didn’t hear Court going on about things like adultery.

“I don’t hear her lecturing people on their second marriages as adultery, because she would lose half the Australian population if she did,” she said.

“But we’re the low-hanging fruit, you can kick us to death to the applause of the mainstream media and ramp up solicitations for money ... and it’s frankly sick making.

I disagree with Cate McGregor on many issues, but that speech then was amazing. #thedrum

— Kathryn Skidmore (@kathy_skidmore1) June 1, 2017

Eloquent, powerful words Cate McGregor on #MargaretCourt 's vilification of #LGBTI community #TheDrum #auspol

— Lee-Anne Walker (@Lee_AnneWalker) June 1, 2017

“I went to bed last night not having made the life of any other Australian miserable,” McGregor said. “This woman has to look at her conscience and live with her remarks and ask herself as a Christian ... has she dealt with us lovingly?”

“I respect this woman for her achievements, I oppose efforts to boycott the Australian Open or to rename that arena because it smacks of Stalinist airbrushing of someone’s history and that’s making them an unperson and that’s wrong,” she said.

“But I would ask her to think very heavily and examine her conscience about the impacts these remarks have on a very small minority of Australians, whose lives are difficult enough without this kind of stuff.”

When asked what she thought Australians should do, rather than support a boycott or name change to the stadium, McGregor said: “We can just be visible and proud and not break under this and live our lives authentically.

“We’ve got to be better than she is, that’s the crazy double standard, we’ve got to show dignity when she’s not required to.”

Well said, Cate.

I don't really have much regard for Cate McGregor, but that is one very powerful and coherent statement #MargaretCourt #TheDrum

— terry lancashire (@terrylancashire) June 1, 2017

#thedrum Amazing and moving comments by Cate McGregor.

— Helen Stuart (@wilburismycat) June 1, 2017

Originally published as Cate McGregor delivers moving response to Margaret Court’s comments on lesbians and transgender children