Margaret Court is still honoured with the highest possible public service despite her several homophobic comments. 

Margaret Court is known as the most successful female tennis player in Australian history. She has been on the tennis circuit for 17 years and won 24 singles Grand Slam titles. The woman is now 78-years-old and a Christian pastor.

Court has been posting homophobic comments in recent years, causing frustration among civilians. She once said that tennis was “full of lesbians” and made a homophobic remark about the teaching of LGBTQ content in school and called it “the work of the devil”. The tennis player even wrote an open letter in 2017 saying she would boycott airline Qantas because they support same-sex marriage. 

She won an Order of the British Empire honour in 1967 and the Australian service honour in 2007. The woman also won the singles Grand Slam in 1970, the mixed doubles Grand Slam in 1963 and the mixed doubles Grand Slam in 1965.  Her most recent prize was the highest category of honour awarded as part of the Australia Day honours on Tuesday. 

Of course, the public reacted to her homophobic behaviour, which tarnished her image even though she has been the pride of Australia for decades. Regardless of her last award, Dr. Clara Tuck Meng Soo, a trans woman, says the decision to hand Court Australia’s most prestigious honour “promotes discrimination” to LGBTQ people. A lot of people were outraged by that decision,it even prompted a doctor in Canberra to hand back her own award in protest. 

In response to all the critics, she spoke to local reporters on Friday, “Always remember I’m a minister of the gospel and have been for the last 30 years, I always say what the Bible says.” said she.