Russian pole vault champion backs anti-gay laws to protect ‘normal people’ from gays
A Russian sportswoman who won her third championship title on Tuesday has today condemned homosexuality and those who have come out in support of gay athletes.
Yelena Isinbayeva, a Russian pole vault champion competing this week at the World Athletics Championship made her comments after Swedish competitor, Emma Green Tregaro painted her nails in the colour of the rainbow in a sign of solidarity for the gay community in Russia.
Isinbayeva declared that she was in favour of the recently passed anti-gay legislation passed by the Russian Government. She stated that “If we allow to promote and do all this stuff on the street, we are very afraid about our nation because we consider ourselves like normal, standard people”
She went onto say that “Everything must be fine. It comes from history. We never had any problems, these problems in Russia, and we don’t want to have any in the future.”
In direct reference to Emma Tregaro she said: “It’s unrespectful [sic] to our country, it’s unrespectful [sic] to our citizens, because we are Russians, Maybe we are different from European people and other people from different lands”
She concluded by saying that “We have our home and everyone has to respect it. When we arrive to different countries, we try to follow their rules.”
Her comments come just days after Russian football chief, Alexey Sorokin defended the gay propaganda law and said that athletes would have nothing to fear if they didn’t “go out of their way to be actively involved in propaganda.”
