The Esplanade Hotel in Bunbury have donated $500 to a local LGBTI youth group after controversial tennis player and religious leader Margaret Court visited their establishment.

Members of the the local LGBTI community had criticised the venue, which also hosts the town’s annual Pride party, for accepting a booking from Tennis Seniors WA who had invited Court to give a talk about her tennis career.

The champion tennis player in her retirement has formed her own pentecostal church, and been and regularly spoken out against LGBTI for several decades. Court has accused lesbians of taking over the game of tennis, compared the Safe Schools program to communism and suggested that many people are same sex attracted as a result of sexual abuse.

The donation has been made to the Sexuality and Gender Acceptance Program at Southwest Counselling.

OIP Staff