Susie O’Brien: Why Tennis Australia can’t have it both ways in Margaret Court debate
Tennis Australia should have the courage to follow Rugby Australia’s stand and sideline Margaret Court — for how can you claim to be a champion of diversity while placing the divisive former star on a pedestal, asks Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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Tennis Australia can’t have it both ways. It can’t host Margaret Court at the Australian Open and distance itself from her objectionable views.
Tennis’s peak body can’t claim to be a supporter of diversity and yet give the divisive former player a new pedestal.
Elevating Court during next year’s tournament sends the message that her hurtful and divisive views should be overlooked for the sake of her legacy.
In a statement, Tennis Australia acknowledges that Court’s views about homosexuality, transgender children and same-sex marriage have “demeaned and hurt many in our community”. Yet it ignores these feelings in a bid to further commemorate Court herself.
Court has a stadium named after her at Melbourne Park — she’s gone beyond being a mere past player and is now a public icon. She shouldn’t be given further public recognition given her shameful views.
It is not possible, as Australian tennis great Todd Woodbridge has suggested, to separate the player and the person. Court’s views have currency because of her status as a well-known past tennis champion.
Rugby Australia took a stand and sacked Israel Folau, who holds similar views, and the sport is better off for it. Poorer, no doubt, but stronger in the long run.
It’s a pity Tennis Australia hasn’t had the courage to do the same thing and sideline Court.
No doubt tennis officials agonised about the decision to give Court a role as a special guest. The announcement came with a strongly worded statement denouncing Court’s views and making it clear her personal beliefs “do not align with our values of equality, diversity and inclusion”. So why celebrate her, then?
Tennis Australia won three recent Pride in Sport Awards, so it shouldn’t be hosting Court, who thinks transgender children have been brainwashed by the “Devil”.
Court thinks transgender children are 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 denies she is anti-gay, but she thinks same-sex marriages are unhealthy and unnatural and “legitimise what God calls abominable sexual practices”.
Such retrograde and outdated views of homosexuality are dangerous.
Not only do they wrongly position being gay as destructive, but they suggest it is a social construct that can be cured or chosen.
Court has also claimed gay men in her church wanted to stop other young men being gay because they knew it would “destroy their lives”. She also objects to same-sex marriage so strongly that she boycotts Qantas, which has a proudly gay CEO.
It beggars belief that Tennis Australia is granting Court this great privilege next year. It’s not as if she made these comments many years ago in a different era. She continues to speak out freely on such matters.
Court, who is a pastor and founder of Victory Life Church in Perth, has even openly attacked other female tennis players who are gay.
Back in 1990, Court said the life of gay tennis great Martina Navratilova had “gone astray” and that it was “very sad for children to be exposed to homosexuality”.
In 2013, she wrote a letter to The West Australian newspaper expressing sadness that the baby of tennis player Casey Dellacqua would be “deprived of its father”.
And in 2017, she said tennis was “full of lesbians” even though she admitted there were “only a couple” there when she was playing. But she suggested those “at the top” influenced younger players and took them to parties. “And what you get at the top is often what you’ll get right through that sport,” she hinted darkly.
No doubt one of these top players was US champion Billie Jean King, who was publicly outed as gay in 1981.
King said she would refuse to play at Margaret Court arena because of Court’s views, even though she counts herself as a friend. She said she didn’t feel comfortable about being gay until she was 51 and believed this was partly because of the shame associated with homosexuality in the 1970s.
How sad, then, that Tennis Australia continues to celebrate a past player who shares these views and perpetuates such damaging associations.
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Woodbridge says Margaret Court will not be able to use the Australian Open as a platform for expressing her views. He says the statement “takes away her platform to use her tennis to drive her other views”.
However, no one can be sure of this. Tennis Australia can’t control Court any more than Rugby Australia can control Israel Folau. Folau continues to uphold his right to “post whatever he likes” on social media.
Indeed, Court’s four children responded to Tennis Australia’s announcement by saying they were “disappointed” with the statement decrying her views.
I’m disappointed with Tennis Australia. They’ve missed a chance to show young players and fans, among others, that it matters when you hurt and discriminate against others.
— Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist
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