We know this because the 77-year-old has helped to establish an outpost of a regime that that has overseen its LGBTQ population flee in their thousands because of state-sponsored persecution and.
![Margaret Court has established a consulate for Burundi,which has an appalling human rights record.](https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_300%2C$height_150/t_crop_auto/t_sharpen%2Cq_auto%2Cf_auto/2121a97c902805272c3e5a5b26d0140f25c6f1a4)
Margaret Court has established a consulate for Burundi,which has an appalling human rights record.AP
In July last year,Court welcomed Denise Bucumi Nkurunziza,the First Lady of Burundi,to her Victory Life Centre in Perth,which she calls a “bright family church” and runs as a Pentecostal minister. President Nkurunziza could not attend with his wife because he risked being arrested and tried in the International Criminal Court. Favoured by this dictator perhaps because of her inflammatory public comments about homosexuals and transgender people,Court and her husband Barry,had established a consulate for his government and Barry has been named honorary consul.
News out of Burundi can be patchy,,life has been a for LGBTQ people,with prejudice among the broader population officially sanctioned by the government. In 2011,the Minister of Education introduced an ordinance imposing a punishment of one year’s suspension from school for pupils found guilty of “homosexuality”;.
This at a time when legal rights for lesbian,gay,bisexual,transgender and intersex people are diminishing right across the African continent. Last October LGBTQ activist amid rising calls to revive Uganda’s so-called Kill the Gays bill,which was struck down by the country’s high court in 2014. In East African countries like Uganda and Burundi,LGBTQ people aren’t just afraid of losing their jobs,being beaten by their parents,or gangs of parents and neighbourhood youth,and evicted from their homes. Their priority is just staying alive.
Court’s silence on such atrocities speaks volumes about her worldview:that the lives of LGBT people are disposable,that they’re of far less value than others. she has repeatedly claimed in her own defence,but the sharp truth is she is a supporter and enabler of hate. Organisation like FamilyVoice Australia,which has organised online petitions such as I Stand With Margaret Court,and the Australia Christian Lobby will attempt to whitewash their own hate by saying this is an issue of free speech. They ignore the gay man or lesbian in Burundi in daily fear of their life,the buried son in Kenya killed at the hands of the police;the thousands locked away to rot in prisons in the Middle East;the LGBT kids being bullied in schools in Australia. Court’s comments about would be laughable if they weren’t used to validate harassment and celebrate ignorance.
There’s no taking away Court’s momentous achievements as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. In 1970,she won all four major titles – Australian Open,French Open,Wimbledon,and US Open. This doesn’t prevent her from being a promulgator of hate.