Camila Vega
Russia’s top-ranked women’s tennis player Daria Kasatkina said in a video interview released Monday that she is dating a woman. The French Open semifinalist’s comments come as the Russian parliament discusses tightening already strict restrictions on public discussions of LGBTQ relationships.
In the YouTube interview with Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko, Kasatkina said “yes” when asked if she had a girlfriend. Kasatkina added that she believes “living in the closet” would not be sustainable in the long term. “It’s pointless. You’ll be constantly focused on that, until you choose to come out,” Kasatkina said. Further, she added that it is on each person to decide “how to do it and how much to tell.”
Russian human rights activists and other athletes have described the decision to come out as gay by the country’s top-ranked female tennis player, Daria Kasatkina, as a monumental and symbolic moment for LGBTQ+ rights in the country and in Tennis.
What the World of Sports Responded to Daria Kasatkina
“When I heard the news about Kasatkina, I couldn’t believe it, I was so proud,” said Nadya Karpova, a soccer player who became the first openly gay athlete on the Russian national team when she came out last month.
“It is so important for younger people to have role models who are like them. For them to see that there is absolutely nothing wrong with them,” Karpova added. Just hours before Daria Kasatkina’s interview, six Duma deputies introduced a new bill that would ban public discussion of LGBTQ+ relationships in a positive or neutral manner, and any LGBTQ+ content in cinemas.
The new law would expand on the country’s so-called “gay propaganda” bill passed in 2013, which banned the “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” to minors and has been used to stop gay pride marches and arrest gay rights activists. Under the proposed changes, any event or act deemed to be an attempt to promote homosexuality could result in a fine.
The bill came after influential parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said earlier this month that since Russia had left the Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog, it could now ban the promotion of “non-traditional values.” “Demands to legalise same-sex marriages in Russia are a thing of the past,” Volodin said. “Attempts to impose alien values on our society have failed.”
Given the current climate, Igor Kochetkov of the LGBT Network, a prominent Russian group that advocates for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, described Daria Kasatkina’s coming out as “monumental.” “This is the first time in our history that an undisputed sports star of Kasatkina’s stature has come out. And in Putin’s Russia sport is always political,” Kochetkov said.
Kasatkina, 25, ranked 12th in the world, lives and trains in Spain, where the interview was filmed. In the interview, she also calls for an end to the fighting in Ukraine. “For the war to end,” Kasatkina said when asked what she wants most in life, describing the conflict as a “complete nightmare.”
Russian authorities insist that the conflict is not known as a “war,” but as a “special military operation,” and criticism of the war or the Russian military can be punishable by fines or imprisonment. Kasatkina is shown in the video crying when asked if she fears she may not be able to return to Russia after her comments in the interview.
This is in addition to a group of women who are part of a broader representation that is necessary for the next generations.
