Barry Court, the husband of tennis legend turned religious leader Margaret Court, has denied his wife every described transgender children as being “of the devil”.

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The former President of the WA Liberal party wrote to media outlets this week and said reports that his wife had made comments of that nature were untrue.

The comments have been in the news once again after US tennis champion Billie Jean King said it was time to rename Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena.

Barry Court chastised King and said she’d gotten her facts wrong.

“Billie Jean (should) first check her facts before making allegations against my wife,” he said. “Margaret never made the statement that transgender children being of the devil.” Barry Court said.

“We have reputable sources review all her press releases and interviews and cannot trace these remarks back to Margaret.

Court made the comments during an interview with Christian Radio station Vision Australia, and they were widely reported across the media last year.

Here’s the full quote of what Margaret Court said during the interview on the show 20Twenty, including the rambling preamble that lead her to mentioning the devil.

“The gay lobby is behind that bullying programme in the schools. And, you know, children not knowing … they’re taking out ‘he’ and ‘she’ and you become an ‘it’ and a ‘we’ and a ‘they’. And, you know, if you feel like being a girl you can dress like a girl if you’re a boy. And if you’re a boy … uh, I think what confusion for a child. I get confused just talking about it.

“When I was little, I was very much a tomboy. My mum used to say to me, ‘you should have been a boy’. I could kick the football better than anybody, play cricket. But you know what? I always knew I was a girl. And I was conscious and I was brought up like that. And I liked wearing shorts but I liked wearing dresses. And there was never any other thought that was ever said.

“But with the literature, the bullying, the stuff that’s put out today into children’s minds, I tell you what, if you haven’t got parents who bring you up that way, and you’ve got parents who don’t care and you’re hurt and offended by somebody saying something to you or … I tell you a child can just start to think well, maybe I am a girl, when they’re a boy. Or maybe I am a girl, when I’m a boy. Your thoughts, and even medically they’re knowing now, they say the mind is a battlefield.

“That’s why I wrote that book, ‘Train Your Brain’… it’s all in the Bible. God’s got so much in there about the mind, how it affects us, affects our emotions, our feelings.

“You can think, ‘I’m a boy’ and it’ll affect your emotions and feelings and everything else. That’s all the devil. That’s what Hitler did and that’s what Communism did: got the minds of the children. And there’s a whole plot in our nation and in the nations of the world to get the minds of the children.”

The audio of the full interview is available online.

OIP Staff