International Courant
2 hours in the past
By Jean Mackenzie, BBC Information, reporting from Kiev
BBC/Thanyarat Doksone
Rodion locations a flag for his ex-boyfriend who was killed within the early levels of the struggle in Ukraine
A nook of Kiev’s symbolic central sq. is now lined with hundreds of small blue and yellow flags, paying tribute to Ukraine’s fallen troopers. Earlier this month, a bunch of activists gathered so as to add one other sort of flag to the ever-growing assortment. That they had unicorns within the middle, representing each homosexual soldier who had died within the struggle.
The deaths of LGBT troopers in Ukraine have uncovered an inequality. They don’t have the identical rights as heterosexual troops. Identical-sex marriage is illegitimate, which means that when these troopers are killed, their companions don’t have any proper to determine what occurs to their our bodies, nor are they entitled to state help.
A 30-year-old costume designer, Rodion, had come to plant a flag in honor of his ex-boyfriend Roman, who was murdered within the early months of the invasion, the day earlier than his twenty second birthday.
Roman and 5 others from his brigade have been killed in a rocket assault close to Kupiansk, close to Kharkov, after a neighborhood household leaked their place to the Russians.
“All this dying, all this blood, it is the identical whether or not you are heterosexual or gay,” Rodion mentioned, however he was abruptly interrupted by the acquainted hum of air raid sirens.
“To see?” he continued, pointing to the sky. “Missiles can kill us the identical means they kill everybody else.” The struggle has made the struggle for equality extra pressing. “I’ve waited 30 years, I can not wait one other 30 years as a result of I can not assure I will be alive when this ends,” Rodion mentioned.
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Roman was killed in a rocket assault close to Kharkov
Attitudes in the direction of LGBT rights have modified dramatically over the previous decade as Ukraine has embraced European values, though many nonetheless maintain socially conservative and even homophobic views.
The truth that brazenly homosexual persons are combating and dying on the entrance strains has additional challenged individuals’s prejudices. However significant change is more durable to see.
Hopes have been excessive final spring when a invoice to permit same-sex {couples} to have a registered partnership was launched into parliament, however this has stalled 14 months later.
In the meantime, LGBT troopers have reported being bullied and harassed of their models.
When Mariya Volya virtually died in 2022 whereas defending her hometown of Mariupol, now below Russian occupation, she determined it was time to return out.
Though the 31-year-old had served within the navy since 2015, the large-scale Russian invasion pushed her worry threshold. Revealing her sexuality was now not one thing she was afraid to disclose.
Mariya posted her popping out on a TikTok account for LGBT troopers. When her commander noticed the message, he advised her to delete it. Then she obtained a barrage of on-line hate from anti-LGBT activists. Mariya transferred models and now works within the Donetsk area, close to the Jap Entrance, as a radio engineer for the forty seventh Brigade.
However she nonetheless has to make discriminatory feedback. ‘Why cannot you kind your individual unit?’ a few of her fellow troopers ask. She continues to be harassed on-line and on the streets, to the extent that she typically doesn’t really feel secure going out in her navy uniform for worry of being acknowledged.
Mariya (in navy fatigues) and her fiancé Diana attended the Pleasure march in Kiev earlier this month
However on June 16, throughout a break from the entrance strains, Mariya donned her khaki camouflage pants to attend the primary Pleasure march held in Kiev because the invasion started.
Collectively along with her fiancé Diana, Mariya joined the refrain singing for ‘victory and equality’. “Now we have two calls for. Extra weapons and civil partnerships,” the organizers shouted.
Legalizing same-sex marriage is at present not an possibility as a result of it will require amending the structure, which isn’t potential whereas Ukraine is below martial legislation.
“I can not rule out one thing critical occurring to me, and I need my fiancée to be cared for and guarded,” Mariya mentioned.
As she spoke, Diana shifted uncomfortably and appeared away. “I do not prefer it if you discuss like that,” she mentioned.
However Diana understands the chance. When Mariya calls her from the entrance strains, she hears the explosions within the background. “We need to communicate as a lot as potential, however I do not inform her every little thing I am going by,” Mariya mentioned, admitting it will scare her an excessive amount of.
Mariya and Diana have been accompanied within the driving rain by a dozen LGBT troopers. For some, it was their first Pleasure march, they usually had obtained particular permission from their commanders to attend that day. In 2021, this could have been unthinkable.
EPA/Sergei Dolzhenko
This was the primary Pleasure march in Kiev because the invasion
One couple used the parade to get to their households and navy models. “It is a very emotional day for us,” they advised me, not but able to reveal their names publicly. “We’re proud that now we have been in a position to present those that many people are homosexual troopers, and that we’re heading in the right direction. frontlines defending Ukraine.”
The BBC has requested the Ukrainian military concerning the therapy of LGBT troopers, however has not but obtained a response.
A lot of the work to extend the visibility of LGBT troopers on the entrance strains has been executed by Viktor Pylypenko, the primary brazenly homosexual soldier within the Ukrainian military, who made his sexuality public in 2018.
The fight medic constructed a web based neighborhood and inspired serving troopers to share their experiences on Instagram after noticing that when he advised individuals he rescued from small villages on the entrance strains that he was homosexual, they have been typically extra accepting.
“Folks’s attitudes change as a result of they’ve heard our tales. For instance, there are a lot of homosexual troopers working the air protection methods in Kiev and persons are so grateful to them,” he mentioned.
Viktor acknowledges that his neighborhood has obtained a serving to hand from Vladimir Putin, who, in his fixation on selling conventional household values, has made homophobia a part of his ideology. The Ukrainians need to oppose him in any means they’ll.
“It is a struggle of values, and other people perceive that if we need to proceed our integration in Europe, be part of the EU, be part of NATO, now we have to embrace liberal values,” Viktor mentioned.
EPA/Sergei Dolzhenko
Viktor Pylypenko (middle), a fight medic, made his sexuality public in 2018
But resistance to vary is fierce. The Pleasure occasion was tightly managed, partly to keep away from turning into a Russian goal, but in addition due to the hazard posed by anti-LGBT teams, which disrupt the marches yearly. Solely 500 individuals have been allowed to attend.
Confined to a small stretch of sidewalk, which was cordoned off and surrounded by police vans, the demonstrators have been solely in a position to take a couple of dozen steps earlier than being led underground into the subway as far-right counter-protesters rushed in and chanted violent homophobic slurs.
“The group of people who find themselves in opposition to us is small, however they’re loud and they’re turning into an increasing number of lively,” Viktor mentioned earlier than boarding the practice. He didn’t really feel secure returning above floor.
The same state of affairs is enjoying out in parliament. There, the invoice on civil partnerships was blocked by a committee of parliamentarians below stress from church leaders, in keeping with lawmaker Inna Sovsan, who launched the laws final 12 months. In components of Ukraine, homophobia is bolstered by spiritual beliefs.
“Sadly, we see that parliament is extra conservative than society, and as an alternative of listening to the general public, politicians reply to the church buildings, which aren’t the bulk however are very vocal,” Ms. Sovsan mentioned. .
BBC/Thanyarat Doksone
These unicorn flags symbolize LGBT troopers who’ve died
A member of the authorized affairs committee, the place the invoice is at present being postponed, advised the BBC that almost all of committee members are in opposition to the laws and are guided by considerations from church buildings and their constituents.
MP Mykola Stefanchuk mentioned the invoice’s supporters at the moment are attempting to win over their opponents.
LGBT troopers and activists at the moment are starting to return to phrases with the likelihood that the struggle might not present the window for change they’d hoped for.
The day after the march, Viktor felt in poor health. He had satisfied himself that homophobic protests have been a factor of the previous. However Mariya and Diana have been already disillusioned.
When the invoice was first launched, Mariya had written letters to MPs stuffed with hope. However she mentioned she gave up because the trial dragged on.
“It will be a protracted highway, I believe.”
Extra reporting by Thanyarat Doksone, Hanna Tsyba and Anastasiia Levchenko
LGBT troops are combating the Russians and attitudes at residence
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