WARNING: This post contains some pretty vile things said by an ageing bigot, so if you’re rather not read it, click away now.
Bloody hell, here we go. Margaret Court‘s latest diatribe is to declare that being gay and/or transgender is a “choice”, and that being transgender is the result of childhood abuse.
The former tennis star gave a lengthy and utterly cooked interview to 3AW‘s Neil Mitchell this morning, who asked her to clarify – but notably didn’t challenge her on – any number of statements she’s been quoted on since this ‘Margaret Court vs Marriage Equality‘ saga blew up.
First of all, she claimed her comments linking transgender children to Hitler were taken out of context.
“That’s why I don’t talk to press unless it’s live, because a lot of it gets picked whatever they want about it,” she told 3AW. “I was talking about the lobby, the bullying in the schools of the children, because a lot of that program that’s been in there is all a gay agenda based.”
It’s important to note here that if you’ve never heard a Court interview, then allow us to tell you they are rambling, nonsensical conversations where the subject of any given sentence can and will change without a word of warning. We’ve tried to edit these quotes as best we can, but the full interview is embedded down the bottom of this article, if you want to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.
Court continues:
“[The lobby] is about a child in the age of 5 or 5 that are told they can be an “it” or a “they”, and God has made it a “he” or a “she”, and that’s what I’m saying, the children in this nation will not – in the Safe Schools program – would not know what they are.”
At this point, Mitchell jumped in to ask if Court “accepts” transgender people, despite the fact that she’d literally just denied their very existence.
“Well that’s their decision,” she replied. “A lot of it is – and studies have been done – from the time you were little, many people have been abused, or something’s happened in their life.”
She then doubled down on her “being gay or trans is a choice” stance.
“I have nothing against gay people, we’ve got them in the church,” she said. “And I love them. I have nothing against them, and they think you hate them, I don’t hate them at all. I think that’s people’s choices, everybody has choices in life, and I believe that’s their choice.”
And aside from everything else going on in this wide-ranging interview (including a bit about how the marriage equality campaign in Australia was being financially backed by US gay lobby groups), she had the audacity to claim she was being bullied.
“I think I’m being bullied, I think I’m a target, that’s alright … I know I’m being targeted.”
You know who is getting bullied? LGBTQIA kids, every single day in this country. Reporting on the public statements of a public figure and finding fault with them is hardly bullying. If you want this circus to end, Margaret, then for the love of god just shut the hell up.
Here’s the full interview.
Photo: Cameron Spencer / Getty.
