A Far-Right Russian MP Is Hosting a Grim ‘Guess Who Is Gay’ TV Show

A prominent homophobic Russian politician has become the presenter of a  new reality-TV show called I’m Not Gay, where male contestants compete for money to find out which one of them is secretly gay. 

The show follows 8 men who have moved into a country house together, and at the end of each episode they vote to eliminate whichever contestant they think is gay. 

If they’re right, they will get to share 2 million rubles ($28,269, £21,000) - if they’re wrong, and the gay man goes undetected, he will win it. 

The challenges involve receiving lap dances from men and women and a bizarre “hole-in-the-wall” task where the contestants put their hand through a hole and grope or spank whoever is behind that wall - either a man or a woman in underwear - and then guess the gender of the person they groped.

The episode has had over a million views since it was posted to YouTube on April 25 by Russian YouTuber “Diary of Khach”, who has over 5 million subscribers. 

Vitaly Milonov, the politician who presents the programme, was the author of the anti-gay '“propaganda” law that was adopted in 2013, banning people from “promoting” homosexuality among minors in Russia. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that it was discriminatory. 

In 2021, Russia’s Human Rights Council reprimanded him after he called for gay people to be “sterilised.”

Although gay relationships were decriminalised in 1993, Russian authorities have repeatedly denied permits for Pride parades, arrested LGBT activists and tolerated extreme violence against gay people, most notably in Chechnya. 

According to a survey from the Levada Center, nearly 1 in 5 Russians believe gay men and lesbians should be eliminated from society.

“I’m Not Gay” has been given a kicking by international media, but the Russian-language comments under the video on YouTube suggest the series has some fans.

“Damn cool!” wrote one user. “Thank you for the interesting content,” wrote another.