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American reporter uses Russian TV appearance for gay rights protest

Jamie Kirchick decided to use an appearance on Russian TV to protest the country's anti-gay laws. (Screengrab/YouTube)

An American reporter, frustrated about Russian media's lack of coverage about gay rights in the country, strapped on his rainbow suspenders and hijacked the conversation live on air this Wednesday.

Jamie Kirchick, a past recipient of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association's Journalist of the Year Award, was invited to speak on the international network RT, which is funded by the Russian government, for a panel about Bradley Manning.

[ Related: Russia says anti-gay law will not affect Games ]

But Kirchick wasn't interested in talking about Bradley Manning.

In a clip posted by the Washington Free Beacon, Kirchick dominates the conversation with a rant about Russia's anti-gay laws, saying he was taking the opportunity to speak out.

"Being here on a Kremlin-funded propaganda network, I'm going to wear my gay pride suspenders and speak out against the horrific, anti-gay legislation that Vladimir Putin has signed into law," he said.

The anchors try to steer him back toward the panel discussion about Manning, but Kerchick retorts, "You have 24 hours a day to lie about America, I am going to tell the truth with my two minutes."

The Russian government recently outlawed what it described as "homosexual propaganda," prompting calls to boycott the upcoming Sochi Olympics.

[ Related: Actor Wentworth Miller says he's gay, turns down Russian festival invite ]

The network cut Kirchick off, according CBS News, and he later tweeted that RT staff had told a taxi company to drop him off on the side of a highway near his destination at Stockholm airport in Sweden. However, the taxi company appears to have dropped him off safely for free.