Don’t pile onto Margaret Court, she’s lost the argument: Cate McGregor's powerful response

She's a Christian, transgender and sports commentator, and Cate McGregor has delivered a powerful reply to tennis veteran Margaret Court's comments on same-sex marriage and LGBT+ people.

Cate McGregor Source: AAP

Cricket commentator and transgender woman Catherine McGregor has issued a stunning rebuke of Margaret Court, saying while the tennis veteran shouldn’t have her name removed from a stadium for her controversial views on same-sex marriage, the Perth pastor has already lost the argument.

"I went to bed last night not having made the life of any other Australian miserable,” Ms McGregor told ABC TV.

“This woman has to look at her conscience and look at her remarks and ask herself as a Christian when she examines her conscience, has she dealt with herself lovingly?”

The 24-time Grand Slam champion, who now heads her own church, said tennis was “full of lesbians” and transgender children were the work of “the devil”.

Ms McGregor, who is also Christian, said Court had overstepped any support from theology or religion in “nonsense” remarks about families of transgender kids and comments around grooming children for sex.

“If anyone has forfeited their moral authority in this domain it has to be the Australian Christian churches who have presided over systematic child abuse that we have learned about recently through Royal Commission recently,” Ms McGregor said.

But it was wrong for her critics to hound Court for her religious beliefs, Ms McGregor added, saying it had given prominence to her views and made her a victim.

“I think it is a strategic mistake for the LGBTI community to pile onto her, given her views - as repugnant as I find them - are clearly in accordance with the teachings of her faith," she said.

“The first person to liken anyone to a Nazi generally loses an argument," Ms McGregor said, referring to Court's comments that gay activists were akin to Hitler.

Ms McGregor has spoken of the societal challenges after undergoing gender transitioning in 2012, having served as a senior military officer in the Army.

“To think I arrived at my life decision without a process of agonising discernment is an offensive and gratuitously offensive thing to say to me when she no experience of my life and my parental background,” she said.

However, Ms McGregor said Court’s name shouldn’t be removed from the stadium titled in her honour.

“Airbrushing a great player out of Australia’s sporting history by removing her name from that arena would be a mistake," she said.

INSIGHT: Love Transformed - How does it feel when the person you love decides to change gender?