Daria Kasatkina, who recently came out as gay, does not believe sexual orientation can be promoted and is happy with the reaction to her coming out.
Choosing to be open about sexuality is a decision many athletes struggle with, but Kasatkina had the added complication of being from Russia, a country with a government that is not supportive of gay rights.
That meant Kasatkina might have been tempted to keep her sexual orientation private due to fearing what the reaction would be in her home country from government officials or members of the public.
However, many publicly supported Kasatkina after she announced being gay. The 25-year-old spoke about how happy she was with the reaction from players and many people on social media.
Kasatkina elaborated on that in a recent interview, saying she feared the worst after coming out as gay, but the reaction to it showed everything is not as bad as she thought.
“I honestly prepared for the worst. I thought it would be dark, knowing our mentality. But in the end, I was surprised how everything turned out. How cool. Not everything is as bad as I thought."
The Italian Open semifinalist also discussed how it took a long time to accept herself and does not believe sexual orientation can be promoted or influenced.
“I grew up with no gay boys or lesbian girls around me. Nothing affected me. The maximum that happened was the Tatu group (Russian music group). I don’t think orientation can be promoted at all. It’s either this or that. Nothing influenced me, but I still like girls in the end."
“It took me a long time to accept myself because society is pressing. Even if you begin to understand something, you think that it is something wrong. You begin to suppress it yourself. You start hiding, leading a double life. And at some point, you already cease to understand who you are. Not so long ago, I came to the conclusion that I do not care at all."