The British tennis player Laura Robson walked unwittingly into a political row in Melbourne on Monday when she wore a rainbow-coloured hairband in support of gay and lesbian rights during her match at the Australian Open. It was a gesture of solidarity that turned an otherwise disappointing day for British tennis into a wildly controversial one.

The London teenager was playing a first-round match on the court named after Australia's most decorated female player, Margaret Court, an evangelical Christian who has created widespread controversy, especially over the past month, with her provocative views on homosexuality.

Robson, 18 next Saturday, was one of five British players who lost on the first day of the tournament but her trickiest assignment was fielding questions afterwards about her hairband. She claimed not to be making a political statement, and said she was unaware of a call by gay rights activists to take rainbow-coloured flags into the Margaret Court Arena.

"It was just a rainbow-coloured hairband," Robson said. "I didn't see anything about a protest today. I wore it because I believe in equal rights for everyone. That's it."

She did, however, know of the recent comments Court had made, which were reported here and internationally because of her standing in the game. Her stand will be seen in a favourable light by those critics of Court astounded by her insensitivity on a subject that is regularly an issue in women's tennis.

"I did [know about the comments]," Robson said, "but it was through newspapers and things. I never saw a direct quote from her. So I don't want to comment when I actually haven't spoken to her. I believe in equal rights for everyone – that is why I wore it."

Court was a Catholic but became an evangelical Christian in 1972, the year before winning the last of 11 Australian titles. She won a record 24 grand slams and is regarded as one of the greatest players in the game's history. She is now the senior pastor at the Victory life Centre in Perth, which she founded in the 1990s.

However, her reputation has taken a battering since she made remarks last month that infuriated gay rights activists and provoked criticism from openly gay tennis champions such as Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King and the Australian Rennae Stubbs, who commentates on tennis on Australian television.

Court accused gay people of indulging in "abominable sexual practices" and described same-sex marriages, promoted by legislation introduced by the current Labor government in Australia, as "unhealthy, unnatural unions".

She told the Australian newspaper: "I've nothing against homosexual people. I help them to overcome. We have people [at the Victory Life Centre] who have been homosexual who are now married."

In an interview last month with the West Australian, Court said: "Politically correct education has masterfully escorted homosexuality out from behind closed doors, into the community openly and now is aggressively demanding marriage rights that are not theirs to take. The fact that the homosexual cry is, 'We can't help it, as we were born this way', as the cause behind their own personal choice is cause for concern."

Navratilova, who has been open about her sexuality for many years, was appalled when told of Court's views.

"A lot of people have evolved," she told the tennis website tennischannel.com, "as has the Bible. Unfortunately, Margaret Court has not ... Her myopic view is truly frightening as well as damaging to the thousands of children already living in same-gender families."

Tennis Australia, the sport's governing body in the country, was embarrassed when the furore broke and issued a statement condemning Court's views: "Her personal views are her own, and are definitely not shared by Tennis Australia.

"We concur wholeheartedly with the WTA [Women's Tennis Association] who stated that 'all human beings, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or otherwise, should be treated equally.'"

In 1973, when she was the leading player in the world, Court took park in a televised match in California with the former world No1 men's player, Bobby Riggs, then 55, losing in two sets. She was inducted into her sport's Hall of Fame six years later and, in 2003, had the fourth court at Melbourne Park named after her.

The rainbow protest on Margaret Court Arena did not materialise in any noticeable way. However, after losing her match to the Serbian Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 6-0, Robson left the court and into a row of which she was only vaguely aware.

Emblem of tolerance

The use of a rainbow emblem to denote diversity and acceptance originated in San Francisco during the late 1970s.

The first example was created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a military nurse-turned banner maker, who was asked by local activists to create a symbol for a gay pride parade. His original, self-dyed and hand-sewn version carried eight colours, representing everything from communion with nature (green) to sex (pink). The first commercial versions saw this reduced to seven colours, as the producers could not get hold of a bright pink dye. It was later changed to six.

In a 2008 interview, Baker said he wanted a drastically different symbol to the pink triangles used by the Nazis. "I almost instantly thought of using the rainbow," he said. "To me, it was the only thing that could really express our diversity, beauty and our joy."

The flag achieved more prominence after the 1978 murder of Harvey Milk, a gay San Francisco city representative. While still primarily associated with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement, the rainbow emblem is now sometimes used as a more general shorthand for tolerance. Peter Walker