‘I’m gay Ukrae and my untry spis me’ – POLITICO

Contents:

• ‘I’M GAY UKRAE AND MY UNTRY SPIS ME’
• GAY DATG UKRAE
• ‘I’M GAY UKRAE & MY UNTRY SPIS ME’
• GAY LIFE UKRAE 2008
• LGBTQ REFUGE FLEEG UKRAE FACE DISCRIMATN UNTRI WH ANTI-GAY LAWS

‘I’M GAY UKRAE AND MY UNTRY SPIS ME’

A 2021 study by the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn ranked Ukrae 39th out of 49 European untri terms of LGBT rights legislatn — which is not great. Homophobic attus are still persistent the police force, and there's been lots of work to to dismantle that.

In a European untry of 45 ln beg openly gay n not only stroy your life, n st you your life. It played a filmed terview which I shared personal stori about my daily life as a gay man Ukrae. After watchg the terview, most visors avoid makg eye ntact wh me — not surprisg a untry where more than 70 percent still nsir homosexualy a disease.

GAY DATG UKRAE

Dpe rampant homophobia among lol polil el, Yuriy Lutsenko, the Parliament’s majory lear and head of Print Poroshenko’s parliamentary group, tried to nvce the media that the reason there was no nsens on the anti-discrimatn clse was jt bee — well, no LGBTI discrimatn exists Ukrae. “It is better to have gay paras Kiev, rather than Rsian tanks” — Yuriy Lutsenko.

In his opn, “ is better to have gay paras Kiev, rather than Rsian tanks, ” he add. Last year the European Commissn silently backed down before the homophobic Ukraian ernment and dched a ccial LGBTI anti-discrimatn provisn for the lol labor om bilateral talks.

But the thgs — and worse — will keep happeng Ukrae bee gay workers are granted no protectn om discrimatn. This summer the southern cy of Ossa, the fourth largt the untry, banned s lol gay pri celebratn. It is 2015 and Ukrae still do not have a sgle law that protects gay people om hate speech or hate crim.

‘I’M GAY UKRAE & MY UNTRY SPIS ME’

But on the same day the ban on Ossa’s pri para was troduced, Pavlo Unguryan, a member of the Ukraian Parliament, n go on live TV Ossa and ll homosexualy “a treatable disease” and acce gay people of pedophilia.

Where gay people are mostly beg treated, well, as people. But they were the first ever MPs to march shoulr to shoulr wh the cy’s gay populatn. Broad homophobia Ukrae is mostly a rult of lack of tn.

As an experiment Central Ukrae shows, most people don’t know anyone who is openly gay, or even what LGBTI stands for. If they had unrstood what they were sayg, Kryvyi Rih would have to be Ukrae’s most gay-iendly cy. I was apparently the only gay kid school, and a nstant target for bulli.

GAY LIFE UKRAE 2008

Beg a proud gay person Eastern Europe is very lonely. Recently I met a personal hero of me, one of the most powerful openly gay people the regn — Latvian foreign mister Edgars Rkēvičs. Ukrae legalized homosexualy after the fall of the Soviet Unn, but anti-LGBTQ attus and laws rema place the untry.

Gay Ukraian, Maxim Eristavi, wr:. In the shadow of Rsia’s asslt on queer muni, intil stori were beg told about gay people stgglg wh risg vlence and state-led opprsn, om Belas and Ukrae, to Geia, Armenia and Moldova.

LGBTQ REFUGE FLEEG UKRAE FACE DISCRIMATN UNTRI WH ANTI-GAY LAWS

I cid to cross the journalism le and make a fal plea wh my own personal story as a stgglg openly gay man Ukrae. When Poli Europe published my op-ed article “I’m gay Ukrae and my untry spis me” (below) I wasn’t surprised by the hate msag and the ual ath threats.

Wh the risg power of homophobia Eastern Europe, we nnot fight off on our own anymore. ‘I’m gay Ukrae & my untry spis me’. After watchg the terview, most visors avoid makg eye ntact wh me — not surprisg a untry where more than 70 percent still nsir homosexualy a disease.