Kyiv’s LGBTQ Equality March has gone a long way from having to be canceled in 2012 because of threats of violence to attracting thousands of supporters in the city center in 2018.
However, there is just as long way ahead: far-right groups and other opponents of the rally conduct attacks on its participants ever year. For that reason, the number of police protecting the march usually exceeds the number of attendees.
This year, visitors of the Kyiv Pride week events, which usually precede the Sunday march, have been attacked at least four times. According to the victims, they were assaulted on June 19 near one of the Kyiv Pride week venues.
To fight stigma and violence, the Kyiv Pride non-profit group, which organizes the rally, launched an educational media campaign this year that involves celebrities. That is another achievement of the activists: Until recently, many public figures in Ukraine didn’t dare to risk their careers by supporting the LGBTQ community, which is still surrounded by numerous stereotypes and hate.
“Each time we educate, explain in plain language who the LGBTQ are, why equality, non-discrimination and respect to everyone is important, the number of people that understand increases,” director of Kyiv Pride, Ruslana Panuhnyk, told the Kyiv Post.
The Equality March will start on June 23 at 8 a.m. The organizers haven’t yet revealed the place of the gathering.
The first rally in support of LGBTQ rights was supposed to be held in Ukraine in 2012, however, it was canceled due to high violence risks.
The next year, the rally attracted around 80 people and was held outside of the city center.
Over the years, the Equality March gained more and more support growing the number of attendees every year. This time, the organizers expect up to 10,000 participants.
Apart from that, more and more supporters appear from various fields, not only international organizations and embassies as it used to be. For the first time, the employees of the Ministry of Health will join the march this year.
“We try to make a step every year. Development is very important for us,” Panuhnyk says.
Panukhnyk says that Kyiv Pride hopes that the number of the march’s supporters will continue to grow, the assaults on LGBTQ people will be investigated and attackers will be punished. She says they hope that one day the march won’t need so many law enforcement officers and fences to protect it and the rally will be headed by the top officials in the country.
Campaign message
This year’s Equality March campaign included videos featuring public figures explaining why LGBTQ rights are important, as well as subway ads with their photos and quotes.
The campaign was based on two slogans. One of them, “Our tradition is freedom,” was created to fend off the claims of the rally’s radical opponents about the so-called traditional values of two-sex couples that should be pursued in Ukraine.
Ukrainian electronic folk duo Yuko participate in the filming of the Equality March campaign video in spring in Kyiv. The video features public figures explaining why LGBTQ rights are important. (Kyiv Pride) (ILONA_RUKOBRATSKAYA)
“We wanted to discredit this manipulation,” Sofiia Lapina, an organizing committee member for Kyiv Pride responsible for public relations and information campaigns, says.
The second one, “Keep fighting — you are sure to win!” is a quote from the renowned poem “The Caucasus” by Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet and the symbol of the independence of the Ukrainian people.
Lapina says that the LGBTQ-community is often approached as something foreign, nonnative for Ukraine. She says that some of the rally’s opponents told her that people that take part in the march are brought here from the United States.
“We are Ukrainians. We were born here,” Lapina says. “We love our country and that’s why live here.”
Lapina says they used a quote from Shevchenko’s poem, who is associated with patriotism and loyalty to Ukraine, to emphasize their dedication to the country. She also says that LGBTQ rights activists are big patriots because they stand up for the human rights of everyone.
“Human rights are an essential part of any socially and economically successful country,” she says. “A country cannot be successful if its citizens do not feel safe in it.”
Celebrities join
The Equality March campaign has attracted 15 public figures from various fields, such as lawmaker Svitlana Zalishchuk, British Ambassador to Ukraine Judith Gough, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Ukraine Osnat Lubrani, as well as several musicians and journalists.
In the videos, the participants explain in plain language why LGBTQ rights matter.
“Imagine that every day you have to hide the name of your loved one while talking to your colleagues,” Ukrainian singer and musician Dmytro Shurov, known as Pianoboy, says in the video. “There should be no place for that in a modern country located in the heart of Europe,” Ukrainian TV host Roman Vintoniv, known as Michael Shchur, says later in the video.
Out of 50 people the non-profit communicated with, the majority, or 30, refused to join the campaign or ignored their messages. 20 people agreed to participate and five of them eventually couldn’t make time in the schedule for shooting.
Lapina says that it’s never easy to get Ukraine’s celebrities involved in the LGBTQ-connected activities, as they still treat the community with fear.
She says that for many years the LGBTQ topic was used as black PR against competitors in the Ukrainian show business. Those speaking up for the community were associated with it, which was presented as something negative.
However, Lapina says that such perception might change after this campaign.
One of the campaigners, Ukrainian rising star, singer Alina Pash, had no fear of being a face of this year’s Equality March.
“There is no fear, there is a pity that there are still those who do not understand why all this matters,” Pash told the Kyiv Post.
She says that her two close LGBTQ friends have been brutally attacked almost to death in the past. After that, she decided to step in to defend justice to LGBTQ.
Pash believes that public people should communicate about the issue, as some of their fans are LGBTQ who need understanding and support.
She says she plans to join the Equality March this year and encourages everyone else to do so.
“It’s time to open the hearts and take off the masks.”
Long way to go
Ukraine’s most popular drag queen Monroe, who also took part in the campaign, has attended the Equality March two times, in 2017 and 2018. She says the rallies were well-organized and were safer than the ones in the previous years.
She says that she always has controversial feelings during the march.
“Walking 500 meters in a pro-European country, which claims to be a democracy, accompanied by thousands of policemen is wildness,” Monroe told the Kyiv Post.
However, she says that otherwise there will be violent attacks and provocations from the aggressive radicals, who divide people into two unacceptable categories: normal and the LGBTQ.
According to Monroe, the perception of the community in Ukraine changes for better but very slowly. She says that the big problem is people’s ignorance.
Monroe says that the reason for that is that Ukrainian society lacks basic knowledge about LGBT people and tolerant language that should be used.
She believes that the government should trigger changes concerning tolerance in Ukraine. Monroe says that children at school should have lessons of communication ethics, tolerance and sex education.
“The sooner it happens, the easier it will be to avoid aggression and rejection of LGBTQ people.”
Monroe believes that holding one Equality March in one city once a year can’t have much influence. She compares it to the cry of a baby in a roaring train. But she still has hopes for better.
“This cry might still be heard.”
