MARGARET COURT’S WAR ON GAYS REWARDED ON AUSTRALIA DAY
My copy of DNA #253 arrived just as the furore regarding Margaret Court’s Australia Day award was made public. DNA provides a place of safety, education, information and escape for the LGBTIQ community. This edition is no exception. In contrast, Margaret Court provides prejudice, discrimination, division and hatred towards the community: destroying self-image, and initiating self-hate and spiritual judgment.
Then came Australia Day itself. Peaceful demonstrations regarding the date of Australia Day held all over the country and recipients such as Australian Of The Year, Grace Tome and refugee advocate Craig Foster, both highly deserving for doing much to make us a better, kinder more just community.
There’s no point guessing why Court was nominated or why the committee decided she was deserving, but it does provide good reason to re-evaluate the nomination system and how the awards are recommended. I hope we all write to the Governor General asking for such an investigation.
To Margaret Court and those who nominated her, I hope you hang your heads in shame. Thank you DNA for continuing to provide the refuge and education you have been doing for so long. – Rev. Neil Ericksson
Margaret Court has already received an Order Of Australia for her contribution to tennis, so this second award rewards her only other contribution to national life: opposing LGBTI equality. Mrs Court’s opposition to LGBTI equality has caused deep harm that should not be honoured.
Mrs Court’s homophobic comments and campaigns include, but are not limited to:
• 2001: campaigned against the decriminalisation of homosexuality. Opposed anti-discrimination laws for LGBTI people in employment, housing and the provision of goods and services. Opposed same-sex couples being recognised as de-facto. Opposed IVF and adoption for same-sex couples.
• 2004: Mrs Court said, “Children raised by same-sex couples suffer from shame and guilt.” Disparaged tennis as “full of lesbians” and publicly criticised lesbian player Casey Dellacqua, mocking her relationship and scolded her for “raising a child without a father”.
• 2017: Described advocates for LGBTI communities as “behaving like the Nazis”.
• 2018: Described transgender children as “influenced by the devil”. Set up a “consulate” in her Victory Life Church for an African regime (Burundi), known for persecuting gays, torture, sexual violence and executions.
• Mrs Court is an advocate and practitioner of “gay conversation therapy” – a practice that has been condemned by the Australian Medical Association as “harmful and dangerous”.
– Spokesperson for LGBTI lobby group, JustEqual, Brian Greig