Margaret Court just got served by John McEnroe.
McEnroe, 58, took his fellow tennis legend to task over her blatant homophobia in a cheeky, strongly worded video posted to YouTube over the weekend. Court, who has won a record 24 Grand Slam single titles, argued last week that her sport is “full of lesbians,” and referenced Adolf Hitler in discussing transgender children. The 74-year-old also declared that she’d no longer fly Qantas Airways in her native Australia because the airline’s CEO has been an outspoken supporter of marriage equality.
In his clip, McEnroe joked that Court’s homophobia stemmed from her 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” loss to Bobby Riggs, who was then beat by Billie Jean King, who is openly gay. “Now I think I know where that hatred comes from,” he quipped, as seen in the video above.
“Margaret Court is telling us, ‘Tennis is full of lesbians,” McEnroe added. “The way I see it, there are three options regarding this statement. Number one ― this is true, and who gives a f**k? Number two ― this is not true, and who should give a f**k? And number three ― this is half true, and should we really give a f**k?”
Shortly after Court made headlines with her homophobic remarks, King and tennis great Martina Navratilova (who is also gay) called for the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, Australia, to be renamed. But in his video, McEnroe offered up a different solution.
“Keep the name and when same-sex marriage becomes legal in Australia, I will personally call my good friend Elton John to host the biggest same-sex, mass wedding ceremony ever seen — in Margaret Court Arena,” he said. “Margaret, that’s just the kind of guy I am.”
McEnroe’s final point, however, really punctuated his inclusive argument.
“Do you know how hard it is, still, to come out in 2017? Just think about that,” he said.
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