Australian tennis great Margaret Court
defended her opposition to marriage equality during an interview this
week with a Christian radio station.
The 74-year-old Court made headlines
last month when she pledged to stop flying Qantas over its support
for marriage equality. While a majority of Australians support such
unions, passage of a marriage bill has eluded supporters.
(Related: Qantas
CEO Alan Joyce attacked with a pie over gay marriage support.)
In the interview, Court said “tennis
is full of lesbians” and that when she was on the professional
tennis tour lesbian players “took young ones into parties and
things” in an effort to influence the players.
“And, you know, what you get at the
top is often what you'll get right through that sport,” she added.
Court also claimed that transgender
people were being influence by the Devil.
“That's all the Devil … But that's
what Hitler did and that's what communism did – get the mind of the
children,” Court
said. “And there's a whole plot in our nation, and in the
nations of the world to get the minds of the children.”
She also suggested that most gay people
in the United States had been abused as children.
“We're there to help them overcome.
We're not against the people,” Court said. “They're human beings
and 92 percent, they say in America, have either been abused in some
form sexually or emotionally at an early age for them even to be this
way.”