Russian violinist Artem Kolesov has published a powerful video statement on what it’s like to be gay in Russia to protest the Russian government’s so called “gay propaganda law” – which came into effect in 2013, prohibiting the distribution of information to minors that suggests homosexuality could be considered normal. The young violinist, who is now living in the USA, published the coming out video in Russian with English subtitles, shortly after his 23rd birthday.

“When I was five, I realised that I liked boys,” Kolesov explains in the video. “During my entire childhood I heard from my parents and the church, that homosexuality is a huge sin, so I started praying in secret to God so He would make me ‘normal’.”

Growing up in a Pentecostal Christian family in rural Russia, Kolesov faced the threat of persecution from his family and the wider community if he were to come out as gay. “In my family I often heard that all gays should be destroyed,” he explains, “that they should be bombed, and that if anyone in our family turns out to be gay, my family should kill them with their bare hands....