You're reading: First gay pride parade to take place in secrecy on May 20

The first gay pride parade in Ukraine is to take place in the Kyiv city center on May 20, but in secrecy. The organizers do not reveal the exact time and place of the event to the public, fearing attacks.

“Those who wanted to participate had to send us an email and register. The registration is now closed. All this secrecy is due to security reasons, as we are afraid of possible attacks,” says one of the organizers Stanislav.

Some details of the future event can be found on its official web page: http//www.lgbtua.com/pride/

Many criticized the decision of Kyiv city administration to allow the parade in Kyiv; 10 members of parliament even wrote a letter to head of Kyiv city administration Oleksandr Popov asking him to ban the parade.

Organizers say they choose the time ahead of Euro 2012 football championship so that the international attention would be drawn to Ukraine and the authorities “would not dare to not give the permission."

“Pride is not a parade or a carnival. Our goal is to draw attention to the problem of homophobia in Ukrainian society and problems of gay community in Ukraine,” says the head of organizing committee Taras Karasiychuk.