Martina Navratilova on Margaret Court: “You can’t have a dialogue with a person who is completely closed to anything based on reality”

My editor at Gay Star News, Tris Reid-Smith, had a chat with Martina Navratilova earlier today that is a must-read.

Martina gives her Wimbledon predictions and talks about the period immediately after she came out in 1981.

Here is a portion of the article where Tris asks her about Margaret Court, the three-time Wimbledon champion who is working against marriage equality 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.’

Although Martina went on to have her most successful years on tour after coming out, the homophobia was always there: “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.”

Go to Gay Star News to read the article in its entirety!