Russian-American actor publicly comes out as gay after homophobic comments

A POPULAR Russian actor who was born in the US has publicly come as gay in response to homophobic comments from a co-star.

Odin Biron is a star in Interns, the Russian version of Scrubs, which attracts an average of 3.7 million viewers per episode.

The catalyst for Biron to come out of the closet was his co-star Ivan Okhlobystin, who publicly advocates for the criminalisation of homosexuality and last year said all gay people should be “put into an oven and burned alive”.

At the time of print Okhlobystin was unaware that his co-star was in the closet, and Biron told the New York Magazine that he felt like he was “punched in the gut”.

The Russian Government has been criticised for imposing a so-called “gay propaganda” law, which led to a nationwide rise in public homophobic attacks both verbally and physically.

“I wanted to go to the station and make a statement that I would no longer work there if Ivan Okhlobystin’s going to be working there,” said Biron, whose TV character is straight but the son of gay parents.

“That’s just not the way I want to operate. That’s the way things operate in the States.

“That’s not what this country needs. This country needs dialogue.”

Biron was born and raised in in the US state of Minnesota before he moved to Russia when he was 20.

He studied at the Moscow Art Theatre, where he found work in the professional theatre scene before it eventually landed him a role in Interns.

Biron indicated that if Russia did not handle his public coming out in the way he wanted, he may move back to Minneapolis to study at a culinary school.

H/T: Vulture