LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Former "Prison Break" star Wentworth Miller, in declining an invitation to a film festival in Russia, has come out as gay.
"Thank you for your kind invitation. As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes," E! News quoted the 41-year-old actor as saying in a letter to Maria Averbakh, director of the St. Petersburg International Film Festival. "However, as a gay man, I must decline. I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government. The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly."