Casting neutrality to the wind, USA Today's Josh Peter is openly cheering for Serena Williams to take the record for most career grand slam tennis titles from the current record holder, Margaret Court (at right in photo with Williams). Peter briefly introduces Williams in his lead graph and then uses the next six paragraphs for an anti-Christian attack on the "homophobe" Margaret Court, now an ordained Pentecostal pastor who believes marriage is one man and one woman.
USA Today has also been campaigning for the renaming of a tennis facility named after Court, an Aussie whose tennis career spanned 1960-77 and included a record 24 Grand Slam titles. On Saturday, Williams played Naomi Osaka in the U.S. Open final "with a chance to match Court’s record and infuse it with acceptance and empathy," Peter huffed.
Shilling for the LGBT movement is common among sports writers at USA Today. Peter blasted away at Court, who "was ingloriously honored this past spring for 'most homophobic comment of the year.' She earned that honor at the 9th annual GLORIAs (Gay & Lesbian Outrageous, Ridiculous and Ignorant comment Awards) in Australia, where Court lives and spews anti-gay commentary."
Now senior pastor at Victory Life Church in Perth, Court made a number of comments in recent years that angered GLORIA and Peter, including:
"Gay-rights activists create gender confusion in children."
"That's what Hitler did and that's what Communism did – it got to the mind of the children. And there's a whole plot in our nation, and in the nations of the world, to get to the minds of the children.”
Women’s tennis is “full of lesbians."
“You stand with values for family and different things, so you are a voice, and then you get persecuted for that. You are not hating the people. You love the people, but you get taken that way. And I say marriage is between a man and a woman."
To which Peter retorted: "Two of the best women's players in history – Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova – are lesbian. But it’s Court’s comments, not the sexual orientation of players, that are so disturbing." He attempted to contact Court for his story, but she was smart enough not to respond to him.
Williams melted down Saturday and lost the U.S. Open finals match, so Court continues to be the sole owner of the record for grand slam championships. Peter, no doubt expecting Williams to win that match, had written: "She will be the deserving record holder, indeed." This is based on Williams' social media message after the 2016 massacre at a homosexual nightclub in Orlando, when 49 people were shot to death and 53 more injured:
Williams also posted a photo of pink roses on Instagram "and made her sentiments clear," Peter writes in explaining his blatant partisanship for the American tennis star. Peter's foray into LGBT advocacy followed by one day a fellow USA Today sports writer, Jacob Feldman, having claimed sports media are once again sticking to sports! Feldman should have known better since his own USAT sports staff is eschewing the notion of not dwelling on social justice politics.
