'They are scared to travel': the obstacles faced by LGBT+ Ukrainians fleeing war
Pride parades are banned in Moscow, but that hasn’t stopped leaders in the Russian Orthodox Church from blaming them for the invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian police have been accused of sending gay men fleeing Chechnya back to the autonomous region, where they are likely to face torture and death.Inside Ukraine, Luhansk, one of the breakaway pro-Russian ‘republics’, has outlawed homosexuality and in February the US intelligence community stated it had seen evidence to suggest the LGBT+ community would be targeted with human rights abuses during a Russian occupation.At the start of the war, reports of racism by guards against people of colour on the border shocked many, but LGBT+ Ukrainians fleeing the invasion have faced their own problems.“Transgender women are very scared to approach the checkpoint or face police and soldiers, trans men were asked why are you leaving?” says LGBT+ activist Amanda Waliszewska.“It’s been much slower to move them because they’re scared to leave.”Through PayPal and a Google form, Waliszewska and a network of other activists have helped an estimated 2,000 people flee the war, although the exact number is difficult to calculate due to the nature of their work.Although cities like Kyiv and Lviv have thriving queer scenes, and despite pro-LGBT statements by president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, attitudes to the community remain ambivalent overall.Waliszewska says that in Ukraine many people remain closeted from their families and that this, and the discrimination LGBT+ face, present particular problems in the current circumstances.“When I was helping, they were closeted and scared to travel with other people,” she says.“They wouldn’t even go to the shelters with other people and would just stay.
