Liberal MP Tim Wilson blames colleagues for ‘national silliness’ over Margaret Court comments – The Sydney Morning Herald

Liberal MP Tim Wilson has blamed his colleagues' unwillingness to act on same-sex marriage for the "national silliness"that has erupted over tennis legend Margaret Court's boycott of Qantas.

He was responding tocalls forMelbourne's Margaret Court Arena to be renamed after Court, a staunch Christian, vowed not to fly with the national carrier because its gay chief executive, Alan Joyce, is a prominent backer of marriage equality.

Mr Wilson - who is himself gay and one of several Liberal MPs pushing for a free vote on same-sex marriage - was opposed to banishing Court's name from the stadium, describing the ideaas an example of "ridiculous behaviour" by activists.

"What we're seeing now is a dehumanising ofpeople if you disagree with them," he told Sky News on Tuesday night. "It isn't justaboutcensoring and silencing, it's actually about questioning the legitimacy of your place in society."

But in a rebuke of his colleagues' intransigence on the issue, Mr Wilson said the frustration with Court partly reflected a frustration with the Federal Parliament for failing to legalise same-sex marriage despite enormous public support.

"I think a lot of what's happening at the moment is people are expressing their frustration in other ways because the issue isn't being resolved," Mr Wilson said.

"Frankly, the discussion around marriage for same-sex couples has descended into a kind of national silliness where people are just taking more and more extreme and absurd positions because they're not actually debating the issue.

"They're not actually debating resolution of the issue becausethe Parliament won't deal with it. So I think we've got to be mindful that that is part of the reason why we're seeing this type of ridiculous behaviour."

That type of hysteria would continue "if we keep not dealing with it and finding a sensible way through", Mr Wilson said.

Such a route would involve protections for people who disagreed with same-sex marriage to ensure they would not face "persecution", he said.

The Coalition tried to legislate for a plebiscite on same-sex marriage last year, but it was blocked in the Senate by Labor, the Greens and parts of the crossbench.

Since, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has refused to countenance a free vote on the issue, despite calls from a handful of Liberal MPs.

The Court controversy flourished with contributions from tennis stars Casey Dellacqua, who told Court "enough is enough", andSam Stosur, who hinted at a player boycott of Margaret Court Arena at next year's Australian Open.

On Monday, Court said she was the victim of "bullying" because of her belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

"I have nothing against gay people, we have them in our church and Ihelp them," she told Sky News.

"[But] God made man for woman and woman for man ... and go multiply the earth. Well you know that two men can't multiply the earth andtwo women can't.

"I have nothing against people with their life, if they want to lead a life like that. But this is a Judaeo-Christian nation and Ibelieve we should protect marriage because we have natural laws - when a policeman says stop we stop."

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Liberal MP Tim Wilson blames colleagues for 'national silliness' over Margaret Court comments - The Sydney Morning Herald