By JUSTIN BERGMAN
Laura Robson wouldn’t call it a protest, but the rainbow-colored hairband she wore for her first-round match on Margaret Court Arena certainly had significance.
A Facebook group called “Rainbow Flags Over Margaret Court Arena” had called for spectators to display rainbow gay pride banners at the court Monday in response to anti-gay remarks made recently by Australian tennis great Margaret Court.
The 69-year-old Court, who is now a Christian pastor, recently told local media in Perth, Western Australia, that “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.”
“The fact that the homosexual cry is, ‘We can’t help it, as we were born this way,’ as the cause behind their own personal choice is cause for concern,” added Court, who won 11 Australian Open singles titles in her career.
Robson, who lost to 13th-seeded Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 6-0 on Monday, said that she wore the hairband to make a point.
“I wore it because I believe in equal rights for everyone. You know, that’s it,” said the 17-year-old from Britain. “It’s not a protest, it’s just a hairband.”
There weren’t a lot of rainbow-colored banners to be seen during Australian Casey Dellacqua’s victory over Bojana Jovanovski at the arena earlier in the day- just a lot of Australian flags.
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