In January, Court, the 62-time Grand Slam champion, reiterated her opposition to gay marriage.
"Politically correct education has masterfully escorted homosexuality out from behind closed doors, into the community openly and now is aggressively demanding marriage rights that are not theirs to take.” Court, now a senior pastor in Perth's Victory Life Church told The West Australian of efforts to legalize marriage equality in Australia.
"They are not perfect, often dysfunctional and despite the fact the role models may be distorted and even severely flawed, there is no reason to put forward alternative, unhealthy, unnatural unions as some form of substitute," added Court. "No amount of legislation or political point-scoring can ever take out of the human heart the knowledge that in the beginning God created them male and female and provided each with a unique sexual function to bring forth new life.
From Gay Star News.
Addressing the summit, she talked about homophobia in sport, including comments by fellow tennis star Margaret Court, who spoke out against gay marriage after it became an issue in Australia.
Navratilova has said Court had previously had a personal objection to her sexuality.
On same-sex marriage, she said: ‘I have tried to have a dialogue with Margaret Court but you can’t have a dialogue with a person who is completely closed to anything based on reality.
‘I wasn’t shocked. I just thought ‘not again’. She is on the losing side of history because it’s the right thing to do. I was disappointed that we couldn’t have a discussion.’
She was asked if coming out as openly lesbian in 1981 helped her performance. In the period immediately afterwards (1982 to 1987) she won a string of titles and was seen by some as unbeatable.
‘You can achieve some success without coming out but you certainly won’t achieve your potential.
‘For me it all kind of came together. Being out… and I started really physically training. Then I got a coach. Then I started beating everybody. I got stronger and did all the training and the tactics and the technique. So I had some pretty good years there. I was in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon 20 years in a row. So eat your carrots.
‘Initially [after coming out] I had nothing but great, great reaction and an outpouring of acceptance.
‘Later I saw it in the non-acceptance of the public when I was playing. A lot of people clapped but a lot were just sitting there and some were booing. And friends in the stands would hear these amazingly homophobic remarks about me. And I was thinking I am just playing a tennis match and you are judging me on this?
‘I never wanted to prove people wrong. I wanted to prove me right. It was about getting the best out of myself. Sometimes it would help when I was waiting for a match and I used that anger and I thought I will show them but mostly I was motivated by positive things.’
And Navratilova said employers, like those represented at the Out and Equal summit, were helping already but could do even more to promote LGBT rights around the world – a subject she is passionate about.
‘Get more political,’ she advised them. ‘Be more of an advocate on a bigger level. Stand up more to these really ignorant statements, whether it’s politicians or different churches. Because silence equals consent. So they [corporations] need to be a little more vocal in their support.'
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