Kyiv pride parade becomes peace march in Warsaw amid ongoing war

Ukraine's largest LGBTQ rights event, KyivPride, is going ahe on Saturday. But not on its native streets and not as a celebration. It will inste join Warsaw's yearly Equality Pare, largest gay pride event in central Europe, using it as a platform to keep international attention focused on Ukrainian struggle for freedom.

“We are marching for political support for Ukraine, and we’re marching for basic human rights for Ukrainian people,” KyivPride director Lenny Emson said. “It is not a celebration. We will wait for victory to celebrate.”

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are among civilians and soldiers killed by Russian forces. re has been a recent push for same-sex partnerships to be recognized, not least because of need for partners to bury each or in war.

If country were to be defeated, it would be a tragedy for Ukrainian people as a whole, but LGBTQ people would risk being “erased completely," meaning killed, forced to flee or to hide ir identities, said Emson, whose organization also runs a shelter for LGBTQ people who have fled Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces. One LGBTQ rights activist in occupied Kherson has disappeared.

In a manifesto, KyivPride calls on people to realize that geographical border between democratic Ukraine on one side and autocratic Russia and Belarus on or “is not just a separation line between states, but also a boundary between territory of freedom and a zone of oppression.”

Russia passed a law in 2013 that bans depiction of homosexuality to minors, something human rights groups view as a way to demonize LGBTQ people and discriminate against m. Dubbed “Gay Propaganda” law, it came amid a larger crackdown on civil liberties in Russia and inspired passage of a similar law in Hungary last year.

Klementyna Suchanow, author of a book about global efforts to roll back rights of women and LGBTQ people, argues that if Ukrainians lose war, it would mark a defeat for a range of progressive causes, including feminism, LGBTQ rights and efforts to fight climate change.

“This is why war in Ukraine is about everything,” said Suchanow, a prominent Polish feminist activist and author of “This is War: Women, Fundamentalists and new Middle Ages." She was planning to march on Saturday.

KyivPride could not take place in Ukrainian capital this year because martial law prevents large garings, Emson explained.

On Saturday, it will be given honour of leing Equality Pare in Warsaw — one of many ways that Poles have stepped up to help ir embattled Ukrainian neighbours.

Poland’s conservative government has been a strong ally of Ukraine, sending humanitarian aid and weapons and allowing its territory to be used for or countries to transfer aid of ir own.

But its stance on LGBTQ rights has also me Poland an unlikely host for a gay rights event. In recent years government has depicted LGBTQ rights movement as an attack on nation's Catholic tritions and as a force that threatens to corrupt youth, echoing rhetoric behind Russian and Hungarian laws.

But Polish society as a whole has grown more accepting of LGBTQ people. Emson said KyivPride organizers h considered holding ir event in or 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 y have me strides in recent years as country has sought to tie its fate to West. evolution of LGBT rights is underlined by KyivPride’s own evolution since it was founded 10 years ago. In 2012, it was so heavily outnumbered by angry counter-protesters that participants didn’t dare march. Participants have been beaten and a large police presence is needed to protect m. Yet event has continued to grow, with 7,000 participating last year.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose courageous wartime leership has gained attention in recent months, won 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 n, however, his party has also taken steps that LGBTQ rights activists view as a threat to ir struggle.

Image: AP