Doug PollardChristos Tsiolkas Gives Margaret Court a SLAP!
Multi-award-winning author throws his support behind Rainbow Flags Over Margaret Court Arena
COURT TRIES TO PLAY VICTIM CARD
As one-time tennis legend Margaret Court arrives in Melbourne to attend the Open, she told the Herald Sun’s Aaron Langmaid “she felt victimised and became the target of a relentless hate campaign”.
She affects surprise that her relentless campaign of vilification against the gay community of more than twenty years has finally exhausted the patience of her long-suffering victims.
GAY COMMUNITY CATALOGUES HER VITRIOL
As Sam Butler writes in this week’s Gay Community News, “Media reporting has really only exposed the tip of Court’s queer hatred iceberg. This is not just another genteel Christian struggling to support marriage equality; no sir, Court has dedicated much of her post-tennis pastoral career to demonising and vilifying gays, lesbians and everyone in between.
“She’s variously described homosexuality as an ‘abomination of the Lord’ and as a lifestyle choice that can be prayed away – sorry, ‘overcome’. She’s deemed same-sex families ‘unhealthy’ and argued the traditional family unit is being ‘destroyed’ by tolerance of queer folk.
“And Pastor Court has lobbed her brand of homophobia beyond her church and into [tennis], claiming that if she ‘had a child playing tennis today I wouldn’t let that child go on her own on the circuit because I think there is a wrong spirit [on the women’s tour]. Young people can get snared into [homosexuality]… thinking they’re like that and they’re actually not. I’d want to keep them on the straight and narrow.’
“Tennis has a long history of successful lesbian players (King, Novotna, Martinez etc) but Court is signalling unequivocally they shouldn’t be welcome.”
TSIOLKAS SLAPS HER DOWN
Announcing his support for the peaceful protest Rainbow Flags Over Margaret Court Arena, multi-award-winning author of The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas, rejects Court’s pose of injured innocence
“Sport is such a big part of cultural life in Australia that having a sportsperson like Court mouth bigoted rubbish is cruel and damaging. She MUST know that, so I can't help but feel there is a maliciousness to choosing to speak out in the way she did. “
Court told the Herald Sun “I want to protect the young of the future. My heart is for the next generation."
But Tsiolkas accuses her of betraying the young: “I don't know whether she is a mother or a grandmother but she would be an aunt or godmother. Her words could be hurting a niece or a nephew or a godchild who is trying to deal with their sexuality right now.
“Her comments would also be hurting and confusing many young people, especially sportspeople, who want to look up to her as a source of inspiration and pride. That's a mean-spirited betrayal.
“She's a great tennis player but that doesn't excuse hate. “
