A Russian TV presenter has been fired, after coming out as gay live on-air. Anton Krasovsky had covered anti-gay propaganda laws in Russia.
He was the editor-in-chief of Kontr TV and shocked his audience and producers with his surprise announcement several months ago.
"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 is quoted as saying.
The video has reportedly been deleted from the station website.
Krasovsky has said he had not been preparing to do it, but made the decision a couple of hours before the show because he felt uncomfortable covering LGBT affairs in Russia without being honest with his audience.
"Because I felt like a hypocrite, and hypocrisy is what I hate the most about people" he told Snob.ru. "The meaning of this whole story we are discussing now is that throughout my whole life I've been struggling with myself. And this - as you call it - coming out is just another battle with myself, with my own hypocrisy, my own lies and my own cowardice".
Meanwhile calls are growing for a boycott of next year's Winter Olympics in Russia in protest at what campaigners have called its "barbaric" new homophobic laws.
British Broadcaster Stephen Fry has appealed directly to UK Prime Minster David Cameron and members of the International Olympic Committee [IOC] to stop the games being held in Russia, comparing Vladimir Putinss treatment of gay people to Adolf Hitler’s treatment of Jews.
He said allowing the games to go ahead in Putin’s Russia would be comparable to the decision to hold the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.
Four-time Olympic champion diver Greg Louganis has delivered a 320,000 signature petition to IOC headquarters in Switzerland, urging it to condemn Russia’s "anti-gay laws".
And US President Barack Obama said earlier this month "I think they [Putin and Russia] understand that for most of the countries that participate in the Olympics, we wouldn't tolerate gays and lesbians being treated differently."
