Homophobic groups and individuals have also joined the Ukrainian army, said Lenny Emson, director of Kyiv Pride, an LGBTQ+ rights group based in the capital. "We live and sleep in a small room," he said. Still, Oleg said he preferred to be discreet about his sexuality, wary about encountering negative attitudes from older fellow soldiers.
![pictures of gay men fighting pictures of gay men fighting](https://english.cdn.zeenews.com/sites/default/files/2015/12/02/437573-women-fighting-700.jpg)
"War destroyed the borders between LGBTQI and heterosexual militaries," said Sofiia Lapina, founder of Kyiv-based Ukraine Pride. Kyiv's 2015 Pride parade was disrupted by violent attacks.īut now LGBTQ+ people are signing up to fight, activists hope war could help erode lingering prejudice. Ukraine legalised gay sex in 1991, but conservative elements in the mainly Orthodox Christian nation often speak out against rights for LGBTQ+ people, and members of the far-right regularly target groups and events linked to the community. "I don't have days of the week anymore," Dmytro said. to exercise, take tactics training, and learn to shoot.Īs soon as they were allowed a few hours off, they got a customised tattoo of the Ukrainian coat of arms. "I didn't want to go into the army, but then all of this went down, and I volunteered," said Dmytro, who also asked for their surname not to be used for security reasons.ĭmytro, a 23-year-old non-binary translator from Bila Tserkva, holds a Molotov cocktail while they show their sparkly white glitter fingernails while serving at the Ukrainian territorial defence forces.īefore the war, Dmytro worked in a dubbing studio. Instead, the non-binary 23-year-old - who identifies neither as male nor female - joined Ukraine's territorial defence force, the military reserve of the country's armed forces. Tattoos and Tacticsĭmytro, a translator from Bila Tserkva, a city in central Ukraine, was planning to attend a rave the day after Russia invaded.
#PICTURES OF GAY MEN FIGHTING FULL#
Oleg, who came out at the age of 19 and has received the full support of his family, said he felt impelled to fight for his country as an LGBTQ+ person because he feared "Russian repression". Russia's military assault, which Moscow has called a "special military operation", sent shockwaves through Ukraine's LGBTQ+ community, partly because President Vladimir Putin has curtailed the rights of LGBTQ+ Russians.
![pictures of gay men fighting pictures of gay men fighting](https://2raw4tv.com/video/picture/vxIanQJndkjhdsuihdsiuhsdMBwp6.jpg)
LGBTQ+ people had been allowed to serve in the military in Ukraine before the war, with the first dedicated battalion founded in 2019 even joining the Kyiv Pride march that year.Ĭonservative attitudes towards LGBTQ+ equality persist in the central European nation of 43 million people, but Oleg said he had "never encountered a negative attitude" in the Ukrainian capital as an openly LGBTQ+ person. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Handout Oleg, a 22-year-old bisexual Ukrainian from Kyiv, took up arms to defend his homeland three days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy banned men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country when Russia invaded, asking them instead to fight for their country, and many LGBTQ+ people have responded to his request.
![pictures of gay men fighting pictures of gay men fighting](https://static.dw.com/image/43238886_303.jpg)
![pictures of gay men fighting pictures of gay men fighting](https://image1.masterfile.com/getImage/NjEwOS0wODM5MDEzMmVuLjAwMDAwMDAw=ADm0ZK/6109-08390132en_Masterfile.jpg)
I miss them very much, but I'm glad they are safe, and they don't need to hide in basements and bomb shelters," Oleg, who declined to give his surname for security reasons, said from Kyiv. "I try to call them every day and communicate. "My favourite places in Kyiv are now in ruins," said Oleg, whose mother and younger brother managed to flee to Germany, joining more than 3 million Ukrainians who have left the country since Russia invaded on Feb.