Tennis legend-turned-pastor Margaret Court, who spoke out against marriage equality in December, doesn't want to be called a hater, she tells the NYT in a new interview defending her remarks.

Said Court about gay people in December:

"They are not perfect, often dysfunctional and despite the fact the role models may be distorted and even severely flawed, there is no reason to put forward alternative, unhealthy, unnatural unions as some form of substitute. No amount of legislation or political point-scoring can ever take out of the human heart the knowledge that in the beginning God created them male and female and provided each with a unique sexual function to bring forth new life. To dismantle this sole definition of marriage and try to legitimise what God calls abominable sexual practices that include sodomy, reveals our ignorance as to the ills that come when society is forced to accept law that violates their very own God-given nature of what is right and what is wrong."

After anger from fellow tennis players Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova and threats of a protest by LGBT rights groups at this month's Australian Open, Court says "I don't hate homosexual people" but stands by her remarks:

I remember, probably 10, 12 years ago, I spoke with Martina Navratilova. To say that I “hate” homosexuals and lesbians is not [accurate] because we have them in our church. I work with them. And I remember saying to Martina: “Martina, I love you. God loves you. But a wrong doesn't make a right.”…

…I make a stand for both my biblical side, and what I believe. And I think — it's a choice. And I think there's young people today that need to know it's a choice in life. And that was my side of it, bringing that forth. I've got nothing against the people themselves, I've always said that all the years I've been a minister.

More at the NYT…