Trans Doctor Returns Order Of Australia Medal To Protest Margaret Court Honour
Dr Clara Tung Meng Soo, a Canberra-based doctor, said she was returning the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) awarded to her in 2016 in protest against the decision to honour controversial tennis player Margaret Court on Australia Day.
On Friday news leaked that Margaret Court would be awarded Australia’s highest civilian honour – the Companion of the Order of Australia. The news had invited a fierce backlash as Court, a Pentecostal Church minister since her retirement, has made and continues to make abhorrent remarks against the LGBTQI community and marriage equality.
First GP In Australia To Undergo Gender Transition
Dr Soo is one of the first General Practitioners to undergo a gender transition and is known for her work with the LGBTQI community, people with HIV and people with drug dependencies. She was awarded the OAM for her work and said she was disappointed to read the news about the award for Court.
“I have spent most of my adult life as a gay man before my gender transition to a woman in 2018,” said Dr Soo in her letter to the Governor General. “My partner and I were one of the first couples to undergo a civil union when that legislation was passed in the ACT and I am also one of the first general practitioners to undergo a gender transition in Australia. I therefore have both professional experience as well as lived experience of the communities that Mrs Margaret Court makes these derogatory and hurtful remarks about.”
Dr Soo said that many in the LGBTQI community do not have strong support structures around them.
“We know that transgender adolescents have the highest self-harm and suicide rates in our community and the remarks that people like Mrs Margaret Court make are very damaging to their morale and health. By giving this promotion to Mrs Margaret Court, the Council for the Order of Australia is sending a strong signal to these distressed youth that discrimination and prejudice towards them is tolerated in our Australian community.”
Dr Soo said that she would like to return her award as she does “not want to be seen as supporting the values that the Council for the Order of Australia seem to be supporting with this promotion of Mrs Margaret Court.”
Award Winners Register Protest
Other Australians who have received the award from the council have registered their protest as well. Rebekah Robertson and her daughter, trans actor and activist Georgie Stone, were last year awarded the Order of Australia Medal for their work.
In a Twitter post Robertson said she was “disgusted” with the honour for Court. “Recently, my daughter Georgie Stone was awarded an OAM which she received for Service to the Trans and Gender Diverse Community. Most of her childhood was taken up with fighting for her own and other young TGDNB people’s rights.”
https://twitter.com/RebeRobbo/status/1352457568703004673
“Today we discover that a person who refers to kids like Georgie as ‘the devil’ has been awarded Australia’s highest honour. I can only assume a reward for holding those views. My daughter is making the world a better place with an exemplary example of kindness. This other person is filling the world with hate, chewing on her bitterness and spitting it out, not caring about the damage it brings. This is not honourable behaviour. I’m so disgusted by this.”
Sydney city councillor Professor Kerryn Phelps, who was awarded with a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) said she had written to the Governor General to register her protest. “Dr Clara Tuck Meng Soo earned her OAM. She should not have to feel compelled to return it,” said Phelps in a post on social media.
I wrote today to the #GovernorGeneral / Honours and Awards Secretariat to register my protest. https://t.co/Hy6ERddjTS
Dr Clara Tuck Meng Soo earned her OAM. She should not have to feel compelled to return it.#MargaretCourt https://t.co/lsFxLgzgfN
— Prof Kerryn Phelps AM (@drkerrynphelps) January 23, 2021
Transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey questioned the award for Court saying, “such a hate filled person who causes so much pain for the LGBTQI+ community. These awards are to honour great Australians, not great tennis players. She fills one of those criteria, definitely not both.”
https://twitter.com/HannahMouncey/status/1352406444692279300
‘Reconsider Decision To Honour Court’
Ivan Hinton-Teoh, a spokesperson for LGBTQI advocacy group just.equal asked the Council of the Order of Australia to reconsider its decision to honour Court. Hinton-Teoh said that other Australians may return their awards as well as they would not want to be associated with a system that honours someone like Court.
“Margaret Court’s primary contribution to Australian society since being awarded an Officer of the Order Of Australia (in 2007) for her historic tennis achievements has been to marginalise and malign LGBTQI Australians. Either the Council was not aware of the damage and division she has actively contributed to or they are and they are supporting it,” said Hinton-Teoh in a statement.
To the list must also be added veteran ABC-TV Journalist, one of the most respected men in Australia, Kerry O’Brien who has rejected one of these alleged and now degraded so-called “Honours”
Maggie Court had alreadty been given one of these awards for her contribution to Tennis, sahe had also been honoured by having a Court at possibly the most important Tennis Centre in Australia, Melbourne, named after her. Since her retirement she has contributed nothing except spread hatred directed towards our community. She claims she lives her life entirely controlled by the Bible. That means she believes in Slaveryr, she also must believe that all women are second- class as, according to that Book of Myths and Lies. the Bible, women are owned by their Fathers until they marry when they become the property of their husbands, should he die she is then required to marry his brother – never mind that that brother may already be married, so she also believes in Polygamy, Should a woman not marry, her Father is dead, she becomes the property of her brother. Maggie therefore believes, because it says do in the Bible, that her father, brothers, husbands have the right to beat her. Maggie knows nothing about the teachings of this man they call Jesus Christ. The entire system is built on Lies. The shape of the cross they tell us he was crucified on is also a blatant and deliberate Lie. In Roman days someone like Jesus was a nobody, a rabble-rouser, a criminal and the cross the Romans used was what today is called St. Andrew’s Cross – just as appears on the flag of Scotland and those men and women involved in BDSM (Hetero and Homo) would know all about.
Jesuc taugh Love. Maggie Court preaches and teaches Hatred – the exact opposite.
What’s the betting that Australia’s Pentecostal Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, nominated his Pentecostal mate Maggie Court for this highest, and now thoroughly degraded, Australian Honour.
The system should not be scrapped as it is an insult to decent men and women no matter what their sexual preferences are.
So just to be clear , differing views are only offensive if they differ from yours and anyone that has an opposing view albeit due to what they may precive as religious or moral grounds (rightly or wrongly) are in your mind ,narrow minded and offense and should not be tollarated ,even though you think they should adopt your line of thinking even if they find it offensive
Just a touch of hypocrisy wouldn’t you think.
Cancel culture is out of control trying to silence anyone they don’t agree with, without any debate or discussion.
Blame the bible not the people like Margaret court and Israel falau who quote the scriptures
Get it right people or do you find them easier targets than the most established book in the world
Far easier to go the individual than the establishment they portray to represent
She was obviously honoured just for being trans.
All national honours nowadays are politically motivated, and all from an Identity Politics standpoint.
I guarantee there are many people who’ve done as much or more for people medically.
If Dr Soo were a straight white female Doctor, would the article heading read “Straight White Female Doctor returns Order of Australia medal”?
SourceL Tranc Voices
Wow … Clara Tuck Meng Soo is awesome !!!
Okay, some context. I wasn’t going to cover this news story as I agree that giving oxygen to the Margaret Court anti LGBTIQ saga isn’t the best approach.
Essentially Margaret Court hates LGBTIQ persons, because she says, the Bible tells her so. Hate is the correct word here. As she condemns LGBTIQ persons for being such. Irrespective of anything else.
Never mind that nothing exists in the Bible about LGBTIQ persons per se. There is anti homosexuality content, but nothing about trans persons. So right there Margaret Court has no scripture to back her up.
Also the Bible has many things that Margaret Court simply does not follow as it is so obviously wrong, like stoning as just one example.
Being a homosexual does not make a person automatically a bad person, and Margaret Court fails to practice love and charity. Even if a Christian is anti gay, that person should practice love of God and neighbour as the first two commandments.
People like Margaret Court are just anti LGBTIQ … with no scripture justification, when in context. I am more than happy to debate her in a public forum.
The Jesus message is love, and treating others with dignity. It is about shunning evil and embracing good. This is the message that Margaret Court fails to understand and fails to practice.
LGBTIQ is about as relevant as skin color when it comes to character, and it is character which defines us.
Trump has an evil character. Margaret Court has a hateful character.
Clara Tuck Meng Soo has a character of substance, a good person, with integrity, and the courage of her convictions.
Shame on those honoring Margaret Court, when she is so hateful against those who Jesus loves.
Margaret Court is NOT doing God’s work of love and forgiveness.
Amen !!!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-24/canberra-doctor-returns-oam-in-protest-against-margaret-court/13086694