After Nick Symmonds won a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, the American distance runner became the first foreign athlete to openly condemn Russia's anti-gay law on Russian soil.
And so far, for what it's worth, he hasn't been incarcerated.
On Tuesday, Symmonds took second in the 800-meter final and dedicated his finish to LGBT friends in America, according to Russian news outlet R-Sport.
"As much as I can speak out about it, I believe that all humans deserve equality as however God made them," he said to R-Sport. "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."
Under Russia's law, comments like Symmonds' probably could land the speaker in jail - if a Russian youth were to overhear it.
The legislation, approved by President Vladimir Putin in June, forbids the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations among minors." Among things specifically prohibited by the law is information that provides "a distorted picture of the social equivalence of traditional and non-traditional sexual relations." By equating gay and straight individuals in his remarks, Symmonds violates that provision, and he's fairly courageous to do so.
"I disagree with their laws and I disagree with their views," the runner told ABC News.
While competing in Moscow, Symmonds was evidently forced to reconcile his outspoken support for LGBT rights with the letter of the Russian law. "I'm trying to tread that fine line of being respectful as a guest in this country and also speaking against some serious injustices that I see," he said to ABC News.
Many other athletes, whether they identify as LGBT or as allies, will face similar challenges in February during the Sochi Winter Olympics. Russia's Interior Ministry made it clear in a statement Monday that it plans to enforce the law during the event, despite recent International Olympic Committee statements to the contrary.