Man getting death threats after making a YouTube video where he talked to kids about being gay

Maxim Pankratov, a 21-year-old Russian man who appeared in a now-deleted YouTube video of kids asking him questions about his experiences as a gay man, is receiving death threats for participating.

The producers of the video are also reportedly facing up to 20 years in prison on felony charges of “sexual violence against minors” for creating the video. The kids’ parents are being harassed by national child welfare investigators and could have their kids taken from them.

The video — which was part of the Russian Real Talk series showing kids talking to adults — showed “four children aged 6 to 13” asking Pankratov how he realized he was gay, how others treat him, how he dresses, his feelings towards women, and if he’d like to marry or have kids. PinkNews reports that all of the questions were age-appropriate and didn’t discuss sex.

Russian Duma Deputy Speaker Petr Tolstoy contacted Russia’s the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the country’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) to examine whether the video violates the country’s 2013 law forbidding the “advocacy of non-traditional sexual relations among minors.”

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A Russian import coming to our shores soon?!