The Russian Women Tennis Star, Daria Kasatkina comes out as gay and she criticized her country’s attitudes towards Homosexuality as Russia is looking to mulls tightening restrictions on discussing LGBTQ+ relations inside the whole country.
Amid the Russia’s step ahead towards tight restrictions over Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Community, Kasatkina, the WTA’s women’s 12th ranking champion announces in a YouTube interview with Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko that she is a gay and living with her female partner for a long time. She condemned her country’s official’s decisions targeting to LGBTQ community.
The French Open semi-finalist’s said,
There are so many subjects are Taboo in Russia. Some of them are more important than ours, It’s no surprise. This notion of someone wanting to be gay or becoming gay is ridiculous.
I think there is nothing easier in this world than being straight. Seriously, if there is a choice nobody would choose to be gay. Why make life harder, especially in Russia.” Added Kastkina during the interview.
Kasatkina said,
Living in the closet is impossible. It is too hard, it is pointless
In end of the interview,
Living in peace with yourself is the only thing that matters.
Just after releasing the interview, Kasatkina posted a picture on Instagram of her embracing Olympic silver medallist figure skater Natalia Zabiiako with a heart emoji and called Zabiiako “my cutie pie” in a Twitter post. Zabiiako, who won her Olympic medal with the Russian team in 2018, posted the same picture on Instagram, also with a heart.
The Kasatkina and Natalia’s got huge support from global community of tennis and other sports for their straight solidarity with LGBTQ community.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a tennis champion of Russia and dedicated to Natalia’s performance wrote in her Insta post,
Your bravery will be so inspiring for other young girls struggling with their sexuality, proud of you. Wishing you lots of happiness.
Ons Jabuer, the Tunsian Tennis Champion and wimbledon’s 135th edition runner up in women’s single also endorsed Kasatkina and she liked her post regarding to LGBTQ+ relations talks on Instgram. In the order thousands of insta users liked her post.
According to The Council for Global Equality,
Though same-sex relationships were decriminalized in Russia in 1993, the tides have shifted in recent years. In 2013, the country passed a “gay propaganda” law, which has been used to target the LGTBQ community.
The ILGA-Europe, an organization working for LGBTQ rights in Europe, ranks Russia as one of the worst countries in Europe for LGBTQ people, above only Azerbaijan and Turkey.
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