The pressure is mounting on event organisers and the Victorian government to change the name of Margaret Court Arena as tennis legends and sports stars lend their name to the cause.
Ms Court embroiled herself in controversy earlier this year when the 24-time Grand Slam winner said she would avoid Qantas ‘where possible’ because of their support for same-sex marriage.
‘I am disappointed that Qantas has become an active promoter for same sex marriage,’ the Perth resident said in the letter published in The West Australian newspaper.
Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova are the latest former players to encourage a re-branding of the Melbourne court, with both saying they would refuse to play in the stadium.
‘I probably don’t think it’s appropriate to have her name,’ Ms King said.
‘If I were playing today, I would not play on it.’
Matildas striker Sam Kerr also supported the change, tweeting on Friday afternoon to ‘Vote yes’ to renaming the facility.
The pressure is mounting on event organisers and the Victorian government to change the name of Margaret Court Arena as tennis legends and sports stars lend their name to the cause
Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova are the latest former players to encourage a re-branding of the Melbourne court, with both saying they would refuse to play in the stadium
Ms Navratilova recently told the New York Times she wouldn’t play on the court, but doubted current players would make the decision
Matildas striker Sam Kerr also supported the change, tweeting on Friday afternoon to ‘Vote yes’ to renaming the facility
Ms King, who is openly gay, says he was one of the main ‘proponents’ of Ms Court having the arena named in her honor to begin with, but now says she has broken her role to encourage inclusiveness and acceptance.
‘When Rocket, Rod Laver, got given the arena, I said ‘what are you going to do for Margaret?’ the 74-year-old said.
‘But I think it’s its really important, if you’re going to have your name on anything, that you’re hospitable, inclusive, you’re opening arms to everyone that comes to a public facility.
‘If you were talking about indigenous people, Jews or any other people, I can’t imagine the public would want to have her name on something.’
She said she wouldn’t be openly encouraging others to boycott playing on the court, but asks they consider it.
Ms Navratilova recently told the New York Times she wouldn’t play on the court, but doubted current players would make the decision.
‘I probably don’t think it’s appropriate to have her name,’ Ms King said. ‘If I were playing today, I would not play on it’
Ms King and Ms Navratilova are both openly gay and have said they would refuse to play on Margaret Court Arena
On the eve of the 2018 edition of her home slam, the 75-year-old has announced she will not be in attendance – instead the Christian pastor will go crabbing with her family
On the eve of the 2018 edition of her home slam, 75-year-old Ms Court announced she will not be in attendance – instead the Christian pastor will go crabbing with her family.
‘I don’t run from things, I face them,’ she told the Herald Sun.
‘I decided not to come across this year and do more crabbing.’
In May, she remarked ‘tennis is full of lesbians’, claimed transgender children were the result of parents who ‘don’t care’ and related non-heterosexual thinking as the work of Nazis, communists and the Devil.
‘God’s got so much in there about the mind how it affects us, affects our emotions, our feelings, you can think ‘oh I’m a boy’ and it’ll affect your emotions and feelings, and everything else and so that’s all the Devil,’ she told the Daily Telegraph.
‘That’s what Hitler did, that’s what Communism did, got the mind of the children. And it’s a whole plot in our nation and in the nations of the world to get the minds of the children.’