Remove Court’s name, King says
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Billie Jean King said Friday that the Australian Open’s Margaret Court Arena should have its name changed because of Court’s derogatory comments about gay and transgender people. “If I were playing today, I would not play on it,” King said at a news conference three days before the tournament begins.
King, who won her first Australian title 50 years ago by beating Court in the final, said, “I personally don’t think it should have her name anymore.”
King has often defended Court, and the arena, and her shift Friday was her strongest criticism to date.
King said she originally supported giving the arena Court’s name, a move that was made in 2003. Over time, King said, Court’s comments about gays and lesbians “really went deep in my heart and soul.”
“I was fine until lately when she said so many derogatory things about my community; I’m a gay woman.”
As controversy mounted last year, the host federation maintained almost complete silence in the face of calls for the name to be changed because of Court’s remarks about gay people and same-sex marriage.
King cited a radio interview Court, 75, gave last May, in which she said it was satanic when children questioned their gender identity. “That’s all the devil — that’s what Hitler did and that’s what communism did: got the mind of the children,” Court said on 20 Twenty Vision Christian Radio. “It’s a whole plot in our nation, and in the nations of the world, to get the minds of the children.”
King said there was no coming back from those remarks.