“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.” That’s what KontrTV anchor Anton Krasovsky said during last Friday’s broadcast, his last.
After addressing his Russian audience directly with his personal admission, Krasovsky was summarily fired via text message.
Krasovsky tells the UK Independent that he expected to be fired but he felt compelled to make his statement in light of recent anti-gay laws passed in Russia. “I have made a lot of money in television and I understood that I’d lose everything, 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.”
The clip of Krasovsky’s announcement has been scrubbed from YouTube. He appeared on CNN and explained to them his reasons for his announcement: “somebody should do it. I decided it was time to be open, for me.”
Watch the CNN segment here: