Margaret Court creates controversy with her anti-LGBT sermon in Australian church

Margaret Court was a champion tennis player during her playing days. She won a total of 24 grand slam titles in her career. The Australian, who is now a pastor at a church, has never been far from controversies. Her latest comments over transgenders in sport has certainly grabbed eyeballs just weeks before she is honoured at the Australian Open. 

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Australian Open 2020: Margaret Court hits out at transgender athletes 

"You know, even that LGBT in the schools, it's the devil, it's not of God. Children are making the decision at seven or eight years of age to change their sex, no, just read the first two chapters of Genesis, that's all I say. Male and female. It's so wrong because a lot of things are planted in this thought realm at that age, and they start to question 'what am I'. And you know with that LGBT, they'll wish they never put the T on the end of it because, particularly in women's sports, they're going to have so many problems," Court said in a video posted on her church's Facebook page. 

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Australian Open 2020: Margaret Court previous controversies 

Margaret Court has made controversial comments previously too. She expressed her opposition to gay marriage, which was legalised in Australia in 2017. In her sermon on Sunday, Court again repeated her view that being gay is "a choice". She insisted that she did not hate gay people. She also said that she doesn't hate anybody. Last year, Court's great rival Billie Jean King said that the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne should be renamed because of her views. She added that she would boycott it if she were still a player.

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Australian Open 2020: Martina Navratilova hits back at Margaret Court

Earlier this year, Martina Navratilova had accused Margaret Court of being “a racist and a homophobe”. This was after Court's comment that tennis was “full of lesbians” and transgender children were the work of “the devil”. 

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