Karèn Shainyan (born 1 July 1981) is a Russian journalist, LGBT activist, and YouTuber.
Biography
Shainyan is originally from Irkutsk, in Siberia, the son of two scientists. He obtained a university degree in biochemistry from the Russian National Research Medical University.[1] Openly gay, he runs a YouTube channel called Straight Talk with Gay People, where he interviews international LGBT+ figures in order to dispel myths commonly held in Russia about the LGBT+ community.[2] The channel's 2020 interview with American actor Billy Porter marked the first time a Russian journalist had interviewed Porter.[3]
In August 2020, he released a documentary titled The Chechen War on LGBT.[6] In December 2020, he released a documentary titled Minsk: Queer and Techno Protest Against the OMON, documenting the experiences of the Minsk LGBT+ community during the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests and the subsequent repression by OMON, the Belarusian riot police.[7]