The highest-ranking women’s tennis player in Russia divulged some personal information about dating a woman Monday amid the country’s widespread attempts to silence the LGBTQ community.
Daria Kasatkina, Russia’s highest-ranked women’s tennis player, revealed she is homosexual. She made that revelation in an interview with YouTube blogger Vitya Kravchenko. When the interviewer asked Kasatkina if she had a girlfriend, the tennis star replied “yes.” She added that she believed “living in the closet” would not be sustainable long-term.
“There is no point, it would always be going round in your head, until you say something. Obviously, each person decides how to open up and how much,” she said.
After the interview was posted, Kasatkina posted a picture of herself embracing Olympic silver medalist Natalia Zabiiako with a heart emoji and called the athlete her “cutie pie” in a subsequent Twitter post.
Russian lawmakers have sought to broaden a law to completely ban the “promotion” of LGBTQ relationships in a positive or neutral light and ban showing LGBTQ content in films.
Kasatkina is the No. 12 ranked women’s tennis player in the world.
