Retired Tennis Player Margaret Court 'Bullied' for Opposing Same-Sex Marriage
People are supposed to be entitled to their own opinion, just as long as they don't hurt or offend anyone else with it. However, retired tennis player Margaret Court was heavily lambasted by the LGBT community after she declared her stance against same-sex marriage.
Court, who is also the pastor of Perth's Victory Life Church, told The Project that she became a victim of bullying after her thoughts against gay marriage were published on The West Australian newspaper.
She believes that when a nation moves away from biblical principles, the nation will inevitably go on a downward spiral.
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When Qantas Airlines became a staunch supporter of same-sex marriage, she decided to boycott it.
"I believe in marriage as a union between a man and a woman as stated in the Bible," she said of the airline's decision. "Your statement leaves me no option but to use other airlines where possible for my extensive travelling."
Unfortunately for Court, the LGBT community did not take kindly to her thoughts and decision to boycott the ariline.
"Anything that Christians or non-Christians say about marriage at the moment, they are being bullied ... I have nothing against homosexual people, they can lead their life, but don't touch marriage, and it's permanent and precious," she said.
"Our church, we have many cultures, homosexual people from many nations of the world and I think we need to know that the foundations of this nation is built on biblical principles and constitutions," she continued. "When we move away from God's values and morals and things such a decline starts to come in a nation."
The Christian athlete added that tolerance does not seem to be a two-way street, because nobody who is against same-sex marriage is allowed to say anything. "We are getting persecuted, we are getting bullied because we do have free speech also. It's very, very much one-way," she said.
After her letter against Qantas was published, Court received tons of criticisms. Peter FitzSimons of the Sydney Morning Herald even suggested that the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, Victoria have its name changed and named after someone who does not "stand so firmly against such inclusiveness."
"Simply sad. She embarrasses herself. Her remarks are consistent with other homophobic comments she has made over the years," he wrote.
Fellow teenis player Martina Navratilova felt the same way as she tweeted, "Maybe it's time to change the name of the Margaret Court Arena then... and I guess Margaret will be taking the boat on her next trip?"
She added in another tweet: "Thank you Qantas for your support. And Margaret - you have gone too far. Shame on you... #wrongsideofhistory."
