Russian TV Host Was Fired Hours After Coming Out As Gay On Live TV

Anton Krasovksy, a Russian TV personality, decided to come out on live television, leading almost immediately to his dismissal.

“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,” Krasovsky, 37, said earlier this year in January on the Kremlin-backed television and internet network he helped launch, KontrTV.

Though his admission was followed by a “storm of applause” by the audience and the show’s staff, Krasovsky was fired the very same night. By the next day, his presence had been completely erased from the network’s website; all of his corporate accounts and his email were blocked.

Krasosvky was surprised because “it takes them half a day to put up a banner when I ask them to, and here we had such efficiency.”