Russian political journalist Anton Krasovsky announced that he is
gay on live television and was promptly fired from his job.
Krasovsky, 37, came out gay on January 25, telling a late-night TV
show audience that he is gay and “as human as President [Vladimir]
Putin, Prime Minister [Dmitry] Medvedev” and members of parliament.
His coming out coincided with passage of a controversial bill in
parliament that prohibits the public promotion of “gay propaganda”
to minors in Russia, effectively outlawing everything from Gay Pride
parades to wearing a rainbow pin in support of gay rights in public.
The former editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-backed Kontr TV told CNN
that he came out on TV “because somebody should do it.”
“I decided that it's time to be open. And it's time to be open
for me,” Krasovsky said from Lisbon, Portugal. “I was fired that
night.”
“I think it's not easy time in Russia,” he said.
Krasovsky compared Russia's law to Britain's Section 28 law, which
prohibited a local authority from “promoting homosexuality.” It
remained on the books until 2003, 15 years after its approval.
“Because anti-gay law is a total copy of the Britain anti-gay
propaganda law. … I'm not sure Putin regime is fascist.” (The
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