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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRussian TV presenter comes out on air, is fired
http://www.advocate.com/politics/media/2013/08/14/russian-tv-presenter-comes-out-air-gets-fired
"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," he said according to an interview with Snob.ru. He was reportedly fired from KontrTV, a government-backed cable network that he helped launch, and the footage of his announcement was quickly deleted from KontrTV's website, and YouTube.
Kraskovsky also spoke to CNN from Lisbon, and said he knew he would lose his job for coming out.
"Somebody should do it," he said. "I decided it's time to be open for me. That's it."
Courage and strength to him! Да здравствует Красовский!
ETA: His name is actually Krasovsky; the Advocate has it wrong.
Pretzel_Warrior
(8,361 posts)mitchtv
(17,718 posts)going backwards into the bad old days. Good luck to the brave soul who challenges neo fascist Russia. And going by the bravura I see from Gay Russians, I see victory
shenmue
(38,503 posts)Three cheers!
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)There's no way to snip this well. If you have time, read the whole thing.
I came out because gay people in Russia are suffering it's time for courage
A young man has been brutally murdered in a homophobic attack. We must challenge the prejudice gripping this country
Anton Krasovsky
theguardian.com, Tuesday 14 May 2013 12.39 BST
Russian police detain activist Nikolai Alexeyev during an unauthorised gay pride parade in Moscow last year. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA
Vlad Tornovy was murdered in Volgograd, the town where the course of the second world war was reversed 70 years ago. The suspects lived in the same block of flats as the 22-year-old. When questioned, one of them said the young man was killed for being gay. The mere presence of gay people in Volgograd was enough, it seems, to offend someone's patriotic feelings.
...
The investigation informed news agencies that before killing Vlad, his attackers had "stripped the victim naked and set about forcing beer bottles into his rear passage. Two bottles went in whole, but the third only halfway. By this time the victim was already unconscious. His torturers placed cardboard boxes under his body and set them on fire, after which they decided to go back to their respective homes. They realised on the way that if he regained consciousness, he would call the police. They turned back, and one of them brought a rock weighing about 20 kilos which he brought down eight times on the victim's head."
...
A former friend of mine gay of course, and of course he kept it secret from all his family, as is common practice in Russia said to me: "What on Earth made you come out? How stupid! Nobody was planning to shop you. The morning paper wasn't running an investigation." I didn't know what to answer. I couldn't even explain it clearly to myself what made me stand up and tell everyone, on a TV show, in a country where they kill gay people for being what they are: "Here I am. I too am gay." Do you think I wasn't afraid? That I didn't feel ashamed? That I didn't regret ruining my career?
...
I used to feel ashamed. I was hosting my last (as we now know) talk show. It happened to be about the Duma's homophobic law. We live in a modern European country, yet we have a law that divides people up into types and categories and says that the basis of the declaration on human rights is a crime. On one side there were the supporters of the law, and on the other, gay men and lesbians. The supporters were like me well-groomed, well-fed, blasé and arrogant. The gay people, on the other hand, brought to mind a row of little sparrows on a frosty Siberian electric wire. And among them was a boy who looked very much like the one who was killed. Practically single-handed he attacked the provincial gang of homophobes with the gay-pride flag. And he was trounced. He had his face smashed, and on my programme. By a miserable ghoul just like me. A writer, I believe.
I was in torment for several days. I would dream about this boy, I would see him at the adjoining table in the cafe, I would imagine that the bus waiting by my car in a traffic jam was packed with these boys. And in the end I understood that I'd had enough of being afraid. Enough of feeling ashamed. I made a decision. It became quite clear to me that I had to stand by this boy, if not against the world, then at least against those overfed scumbags. Together, it wouldn't be so frightening.
...
The time has now come for me to be courageous. Our time has come.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/14/being-gay-russia-likened-to-terrorism
Антон Вячеславович Красовский, я рядом с тобой, и со всеми моими братьями и сестрами. Вместе мы победим.