King calls for Court’s name to be removed over homophobic slurs

‘Devil’ remark angers American ‘She has put me over the edge’

Billie Jean King said yesterday that the second-string court at the Australian Open – Margaret Court Arena – should be renamed in light of the homophobic comments spouted by its namesake.

Court is an 11-time champion at this event, but since becoming a Pentecostal pastor the 75-year-old has offended many with her repeated criticisms of gays, lesbians and transgender people, whom she linked to the devil and the Nazi party in a particularly toxic outburst in May.

Ironically, King – whose strained relationship with Court was explored in the recent hit film Battle of the Sexes – said that she had been among those who called for Court to be honoured at Melbourne Park in the first place. But the 74-year-old has since changed her mind. “If I were playing today, I would not play on it [Margaret Court Arena],” she said.

“I was fine until lately, when she said so many derogatory things about my community. I’m a gay woman and that really went deep. I don’t think she should have her name [on the stadium] any more. If you were talking about indigenous people, or any other people, I can’t imagine the public would want

Upset: Billie Jean King made her call in Melbourne somebody to have her name on something.

“I have my name on the whole facility in the US,” added King, in reference to the Billie Jean King Tennis Centre in New York, which has staged the US Open since 1978. “Every time I see my name up there, I can hardly breathe because of the responsibility that goes with it.

“I just think she’s gotten really derogatory. When she talked about children of transgenders being from the devil, that put me over the edge because we’re all God’s children. It took me until I was 51 to feel comfortable in my own skin. Children who are LGBT have a much higher rate of suicide, so for anybody, to be derogatory towards us is not healthy.”

King’s opinions were particularly embarrassing for Tennis Australia because they came at an official press conference, at which King was unveiled as “the Australian Open Woman of the Year”. She was also supposed to be launching an initiative entitled #Open4all, which is “designed to celebrate the intrinsic fairness and equality of the sport of tennis”.

Tennis Australia’s chief executive Craig Tiley insisted that “Margaret’s views are not our views”, and added that the decision what to call the stadium was not his to make. “It’s up to a broader group of people,” Tiley explained. “There’s the Trust, the tennis organisation in the facility, the [ Victoria State] government.”

Asked if there was a process in motion to change the name, Tiley replied: “Not that I’m aware of.”