NewsBite

Susie O’Brien: Margaret Court has revealed her true colours — and is little more than a bigot

MARGARET Court is little more than a bigot. I don’t care that she’s 74, a Christian and has won lots of Grand Slams. Her views are divisive, wrong and dangerous, writes Susie O’Brien.

Meshel Laurie bites back at Margaret Court over controversial opinions on gay marriage

MARGARET Court is little more than a bigot. Her shameful and offensive views are at odds with the vast majority of the Australian population.

She certainly doesn’t deserve to be treated with respect by conservative commentators, who rushed to defend her this week.

Court’s true colours have been revealed by her statements that children who don’t fit neatly into a heterosexual, binary gender type are brainwashed by the “Devil”.

She even linked such efforts to “control the minds of children” by making them falsely believe they’re transgender to Hitler and Communism.

I don’t care that she’s 74, a Christian and has won lots of Grand Slams. Her views are divisive, wrong and dangerous.

Transgender children are not, as she claims, the product of parents who “bring you up that way”. Such a suggestion belittles the lifelong battle many transgender people face to reconcile their biological body with their gender identity.

Court told a Christian radio station: “But with the literature, the bullying, the stuff that’s put out today into children’s minds, I tell you what, if you haven’t got parents who bring you up that way and you’ve got parents that don’t care and you’re hurt and offended in somebody saying something to you.”

Hiding behind the moniker of Christianity is no excuse for expressing such abhorrent views.

Court talked on radio about how “God’s got so much in there about the mind how it affects us, affects our emotions, our feelings”.

“You can think ‘oh I’m a boy’ and it’ll affect your emotions and feelings, and everything else and so that’s all the Devil.

“That’s what Hitler did, that’s what Communism did — got the mind of the children. And it’s a whole plot in our nation and in the nations of the world to get the minds of the children.”

Calls to change name of Margaret Court Arena
Herald Sun columnist Susie O'Brien. Picture: Nicole Garmston
Herald Sun columnist Susie O'Brien. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Court deserves to be soundly ridiculed for such views. In the same interview, Court also disparagingly said tennis was “full of lesbians” even though she acknowledged there were “only a couple” when she was playing.

Court also claimed gay men in her church wanted to stop other young men being gay because they know it will “destroy their lives”.

Such retrograde and outdated views of homosexuality are very dangerous. Not only do they wrongly position being gay as destructive, but they suggest it can be cured.

Transgender young people are very vulnerable, with up to 50 per cent attempting suicide at some point in their lives. For many the teenage years are particularly bad, and the average age of the first suicide attempt is 16 — usually before coming out.

This is why I am proud that my taxes fund programs such as the Safe Schools Coalition, which are not about indoctrination, but providing essential support at a crucial time.

This is where we should be getting advice on how to support gay and transgender young people, not a former tennis great who thinks they have simply been brainwashed and should get over it.

— Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist.

susan.obrien@news.com.au

@susieob

MORE SUSIE O’BRIEN

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/susie-obrien/susie-obrien-margaret-court-has-revealed-her-true-colours-and-is-little-more-than-a-bigot/news-story/2a661514082109055728db65d2c98705