Australia: Martina Navratilova responds to Margaret Court’s bigotry in open letter

Eighteen-time Grand Slam singles titles winner Martina Navratilova called for a renaming of one of Australia’s premier tennis venues, the Margaret Court Arena, on Thursday in an open letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald. The arena’s namesake, tennis-legend-turned-Christian-pastor Margaret Court, has been under fire for recent comments, which are being called homophobic and racist.

On Thursday, Court announced that she would stop using the Australia-based Qantas Airlines, after its CEO stated his support for same-sex marriage. “I am disappointed that Qantas has become an active promoter for same-sex marriage,” she said in an open letter published in The West Australian. “I believe in marriage as a union between a man and a woman as stated in the Bible. Your statement leaves me no option but to use other airlines where possible for my extensive traveling.”

Court has also previously attacked Navratilova, and other lesbian tennis players, saying that they ruined the sport. She even went so far as to accuse them of “luring young girls on the tour to parties to turn them into lesbians.” Read more via Salon