U.S. Runner Nick Symmonds Speaks Out Against Russia’s Anti-Gay Laws While On Russian Soil

U.S. Runner Nick Symmonds made headlines yesterday by winning the silver medal of the Men’s 800-meter at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championship in Moscow and defying Russian law by dedicating his silver medal to all of his gay friends and publically speaking out against Russia’s draconian anti-gay laws

Symmonds told RiaNovosti:

“As much as I can speak out about it, I believe that all humans deserve equality as however God made them. Whether you’re gay, straight, black, white, we all deserve the same rights. If there’s anything I can do to champion the cause and further it, I will, shy of getting arrested.”

RiaNovosti is also reporting that Symmonds is the first athlete to publicly criticize Vladimir Putin’s anti-gay propaganda laws while on Russian soil. Several news outlets are speculating whether Symmonds words, as careful as they were,  put him at risk of being arrested.