Anchor Comes Out and is Promptly Fired
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It didn't take long after breaking the news for a Russian anchor to lose his job.
Anton Krasovsky, a host and editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-backed KontrTV, came out during a broadcast Aug. 9 and was promptly fired from his job.
"I’m gay, and I’m just the same person as you, my dear audience, as President Putin, as Prime Minister Medvedev and the deputies of our Duma," Kravosky said.
"I have made a lot of money in television and I understood that I’d lose everything," the 37-year-old said about his decision to come out publicly. "But I also understood that I couldn’t do anything else. I didn’t do it so that I would get hundreds of likes on my Facebook page. I did it because I wanted them to hear it in the Kremlin. And they heard it, and were surprised."
Video of Kravosky’s coming-out announcement was deleted from KontrTV's website and YouTube.
Anti-gay Russian laws have made it virtually impossible to be an out gay or lesbian. Violence against LGBT people, particularly gay teens, is on the rise among Russian neo-Nazi groups. Law enforcement implicitly condones the violence and often participates in it.
