Sat, June 25, 2022,
Ukrainians were among tens of thousands of LGBTQ activits who took part in the Polish capital's Pride parade Saturday, in a country hosting tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have fled the Russian invasion.
The march however started with a minute of silence for two people killed in a shooting near a gay bar in Norway's capital Oslo in the early hours of Saturday.
Norwegian police have arrested a man suspected of "Islamist terrorism" over the shooting, which also wounded 21 and caused Oslo's Pride to be called off.
But Norway's ambassador to Poland Anders Eide said love and justice would "prevail".
"Our fight for equal rights for all and our support for the LGBTQ+ community is unequivocal and it will remain so," he told AFP at the start of the procession.
Lenny Emson, director of the Kyiv Pride, thanked the Warsaw Pride and Polish community for including Ukraine's LGBTQ activists in their parade.Emson said the Ukrainian LGBTQ community wanted its rights to survive but that, for that to happen, war in Ukraine needed to stop.
Poland has hosted by far the largest number of Ukrainian refugees within the European Union -- more than 1.1 million according to the latest UN figures.
The Warsaw Pride is being held with full backing from the city's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.
But other parts of the country, which is ruled by a right-wing government, are less welcoming of gender or sexual minorities.
In 2020, international non-governmental organisation ILGA-Europe ranked Poland 44th out of 49 European countries in upholding LGBTQ rights.
Ukraine came 39th.
- Small Kyiv gathering -
In the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, dozens of remaining members of the LGBTQ community held a small gathering at a night club in the centre of town.
Inside, a couple embraced wrapped in a yellow and blue Ukrainian flag as dancers on stage performed to the sound of the Village People's "YMCA".
"What is most important is to accept people as they are," said 28-year-old Victoria Myhoula. People should first and foremost focus on "what we can do today to help our country".
Almost four months after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the European Union on Thursday granted the war-torn country candidate status.
"If we are inching towards the European Union, we need to show that society is open" in Ukraine, Myhoula added.
Nightclub sponsor Oleksiy Krasnenko, 26, said he was proud to be contributing some of its earnings to the Ukrainian army to help repel the Russian invasion.
"Ukraine is a free, open country," he said, though admitting there was some discrimination.
During the last Kyiv Pride before the coronavirus pandemic in 2019, police deployed en masse because far-right and Orthodox Cristian activists staged counter-protests.
While low-key, Saturday's event did however attract a small group of young men in military-type clothing, who sparked a brief fight outside the venue. Police swiftly broke it up.
With war, Kyiv pride parade becomes a peace march in Warsaw
By VANESSA GERA
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By VANESSA GERA
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Warsaw's mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, second right, and European Commissioner for Equality, Hanna Dalli, right, take part in the 'Warsaw and Kyiv Pride' marching for freedom in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, June 25, 2022. Due to Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine the 10th anniversary of the equality march in Kyiv can't take place in the usual format in the Ukrainian capital. The event joined Warsaw's yearly equality parade, the largest gay pride event in central Europe, using it as a platform to keep international attention focused on the Ukrainian struggle for freedom.
(AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukraine’s largest LGBTQ rights event, KyivPride, went ahead Saturday, although not on its native streets or as a celebration.
Due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the event normally held in Kyiv took place in conjunction with Warsaw’s yearly Equality Parade, the largest gay pride event in Central Europe, with Ukrainian organizers using it as a platform to keep international attention focused on their country’s struggle.
About 300 people traveled from Ukraine to the Polish capital, now home to a quarter million Ukrainians who fled the war. Blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags fluttered among a sea of rainbow flags, and some participants chanted “Slava Ukraini” — glory to Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, we cannot march in Kyiv,” Maksym Eristavi, a Ukrainian journalist and a KyivPride board member, said, citing the dangers of bombings in Ukraine.
“However, it’s important for us to still march,” said Eristavi, who was draped in both the Ukrainian and European Union flags. “It’s still about pride, but pride in being Ukrainian and surviving through genocide.”
KyivPride’s trucks were given the honor of leading Saturday’s parade, one of many ways that Poland’s people have stepped up to help their embattled Ukrainian neighbors.
“We want to stand together against war, to walk for Ukraine’s freedom, for liberation, for equality, tolerance and acceptance,” Julia Maciocha, chairperson of Warsaw’s Equality Parade, said.
KyivPride director Lenny Emson said this year’s event was aimed at calling for political support for Ukraine and basic human rights.
“It is not a celebration,” Emson said. “We will wait for victory to celebrate.”
The Ukrainian civilians and soldiers killed by Russian forces during the four-month-old war include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Ukraine has seen a push for the country to recognize same-sex partnerships, not least because couples want to know they would have the right to bury each other, if one of them is killed.
Emson said it would be a tragedy for Ukraine as a whole if the country is defeated by Russia, but LGBTQ people would be at risk of getting “erased completely” - meaning killed, forced to flee or to hide their identities.
His organization runs a shelter for LGBTQ people who have fled Ukrainian territory occupied by the Russian forces. One LGBTQ rights activist in occupied Kherson has disappeared.
In a manifesto, KyivPride calls on people to realize that the geographical border between democratic Ukraine on one side and autocratic Russia and Belarus on the other “is not just a separation line between the states, but also a boundary between the territory of freedom and a zone of oppression.”
Russia passed a law in 2013 that bans the depiction of homosexuality to minors, something human rights groups view as a way to demonize LGBTQ people and discriminate against them. Dubbed the “Gay Propaganda” law, it came amid a larger crackdown on civil liberties in Russia and inspired the passage of a similar law in Hungary last year.
Klementyna Suchanow, the author of a book about global efforts to roll back the rights of women and LGBTQ people, argues that if Ukrainians lose the war, it would mark a defeat for a range of progressive causes, including feminism, LGBTQ rights and the efforts to fight climate change.
“This is why the war in Ukraine is about everything,” said Suchanow, a prominent Polish feminist activist and the author of “This is War: Women, Fundamentalists and the new Middle Ages.”
Poland’s conservative government has been a strong ally of Ukraine, sending humanitarian aid and weapons and allowing its territory to be used to for other countries to transfer aid of their own.
But its stance on LGBTQ rights has also made Poland an unlikely host for a gay rights event.
In recent years the government has depicted the LGBTQ rights movement as an attack on the nation’s Catholic traditions and as a force that threatens to corrupt the youth, echoing the rhetoric behind the Russian and Hungarian laws.
But Polish society as a whole has grown more accepting of LGBTQ people.
Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from a liberal opposition party, joined Saturday’s parade march as he does each year, joined by the European Union’s commissioner for equality, Hanna Dalli.
Emson said the KyivPride organizers had considered holding their event in other European capitals but decided that Warsaw’s young and energetic rights movement was a better fit.
LGBTQ people in Ukraine still face considerable discrimination, but they have made strides in recent years as the country has sought to tie its fate to the West. The evolution of LGBT rights is underlined by KyivPride’s own evolution since it was founded 10 years ago.
In 2012, participants were so heavily outnumbered by angry counter-protesters that they didn’t dare march. Parade-goers have been beaten, and a large police presence is needed to protect them. Yet the event has continued to grow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose courageous wartime leadership has gained worldwide attention, won the respect of LGBTQ people in Ukraine when a man wearing a cross and spouting homophobic rhetoric heckled him at a news conference in 2019.
Zelenskyy shot back with anger: “Leave those people alone, for God’s sake.”
Since then, however, his party has also taken steps that LGBTQ rights activists view as a threat to their struggle.
—-
Follow AP’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukraine’s largest LGBTQ rights event, KyivPride, went ahead Saturday, although not on its native streets or as a celebration.
Due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the event normally held in Kyiv took place in conjunction with Warsaw’s yearly Equality Parade, the largest gay pride event in Central Europe, with Ukrainian organizers using it as a platform to keep international attention focused on their country’s struggle.
About 300 people traveled from Ukraine to the Polish capital, now home to a quarter million Ukrainians who fled the war. Blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags fluttered among a sea of rainbow flags, and some participants chanted “Slava Ukraini” — glory to Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, we cannot march in Kyiv,” Maksym Eristavi, a Ukrainian journalist and a KyivPride board member, said, citing the dangers of bombings in Ukraine.
“However, it’s important for us to still march,” said Eristavi, who was draped in both the Ukrainian and European Union flags. “It’s still about pride, but pride in being Ukrainian and surviving through genocide.”
KyivPride’s trucks were given the honor of leading Saturday’s parade, one of many ways that Poland’s people have stepped up to help their embattled Ukrainian neighbors.
“We want to stand together against war, to walk for Ukraine’s freedom, for liberation, for equality, tolerance and acceptance,” Julia Maciocha, chairperson of Warsaw’s Equality Parade, said.
KyivPride director Lenny Emson said this year’s event was aimed at calling for political support for Ukraine and basic human rights.
“It is not a celebration,” Emson said. “We will wait for victory to celebrate.”
The Ukrainian civilians and soldiers killed by Russian forces during the four-month-old war include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Ukraine has seen a push for the country to recognize same-sex partnerships, not least because couples want to know they would have the right to bury each other, if one of them is killed.
Emson said it would be a tragedy for Ukraine as a whole if the country is defeated by Russia, but LGBTQ people would be at risk of getting “erased completely” - meaning killed, forced to flee or to hide their identities.
His organization runs a shelter for LGBTQ people who have fled Ukrainian territory occupied by the Russian forces. One LGBTQ rights activist in occupied Kherson has disappeared.
In a manifesto, KyivPride calls on people to realize that the geographical border between democratic Ukraine on one side and autocratic Russia and Belarus on the other “is not just a separation line between the states, but also a boundary between the territory of freedom and a zone of oppression.”
Russia passed a law in 2013 that bans the depiction of homosexuality to minors, something human rights groups view as a way to demonize LGBTQ people and discriminate against them. Dubbed the “Gay Propaganda” law, it came amid a larger crackdown on civil liberties in Russia and inspired the passage of a similar law in Hungary last year.
Klementyna Suchanow, the author of a book about global efforts to roll back the rights of women and LGBTQ people, argues that if Ukrainians lose the war, it would mark a defeat for a range of progressive causes, including feminism, LGBTQ rights and the efforts to fight climate change.
“This is why the war in Ukraine is about everything,” said Suchanow, a prominent Polish feminist activist and the author of “This is War: Women, Fundamentalists and the new Middle Ages.”
Poland’s conservative government has been a strong ally of Ukraine, sending humanitarian aid and weapons and allowing its territory to be used to for other countries to transfer aid of their own.
But its stance on LGBTQ rights has also made Poland an unlikely host for a gay rights event.
In recent years the government has depicted the LGBTQ rights movement as an attack on the nation’s Catholic traditions and as a force that threatens to corrupt the youth, echoing the rhetoric behind the Russian and Hungarian laws.
But Polish society as a whole has grown more accepting of LGBTQ people.
Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from a liberal opposition party, joined Saturday’s parade march as he does each year, joined by the European Union’s commissioner for equality, Hanna Dalli.
Emson said the KyivPride organizers had considered holding their event in other European capitals but decided that Warsaw’s young and energetic rights movement was a better fit.
LGBTQ people in Ukraine still face considerable discrimination, but they have made strides in recent years as the country has sought to tie its fate to the West. The evolution of LGBT rights is underlined by KyivPride’s own evolution since it was founded 10 years ago.
In 2012, participants were so heavily outnumbered by angry counter-protesters that they didn’t dare march. Parade-goers have been beaten, and a large police presence is needed to protect them. Yet the event has continued to grow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose courageous wartime leadership has gained worldwide attention, won the respect of LGBTQ people in Ukraine when a man wearing a cross and spouting homophobic rhetoric heckled him at a news conference in 2019.
Zelenskyy shot back with anger: “Leave those people alone, for God’s sake.”
Since then, however, his party has also taken steps that LGBTQ rights activists view as a threat to their struggle.
—-
Follow AP’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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