Denys is a resident of Vinnytsia, a volunteer, activist, and head of the Vinnytsia branch of the Gay Alliance Ukraine

Since few people know about the existence of our organization and what it does, I propose to tell you about the mission of the Gay Alliance of Ukraine, its goals and objectives.

Our public organization is engaged in the protection of the rights of LGBT people. Since 2015, we have been developing volunteer activities so that people can begin to develop the community itself, to become more visible; we represent the community before the state, highlight all the problems that arise in the community.

How does the organization cooperate with government agencies, NGOs, and other stakeholders to achieve its goals?

Since 2015, in Vinnytsia, we have been cooperating with the Ombudsman Zarina Mayevska. We also cooperated with the police. They conducted trainings for us, told us about our rights. There were many situations when we turned to them for help to resolve certain issues, when the rights of people from our community were violated. At that time, we raised the issue of closing down such organizations as "Occupy Pedophilia" and "Fashionable Sentence", which operated in 2015-2016 and caught representatives of our community, filmed them, extorted money, and beat them.

What is the current situation with LGBT rights in Ukraine: has it become better compared to previous years, or are the main difficulties still ahead?

At the moment, the situation with the rights of LGBT people has become a little safer only because the community has begun to express itself. But, at the same time, there are still cases of beatings, and they appeared because many people began to open up. Previously, everyone was "in the closet", closed, no one talked about their personal lives. Now people have begun to behave more freely, to express themselves, and that's why the number of attacks has increased. In the past, the police might not even accept a statement from beaten people from the LGBT community. But now they do, because many organizations, including ours, help the victims of the community: we provide legal support in such cases when people come to us. We have lawyers and psychologists who will support them. But very few people bring these cases to the end, because no one wants to make them public. So basically, it all ends up in court.

In March 2023, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered Bill 9103 "On the Institute of Registered Partnerships," which was supposed to give heterosexual and homosexual couples the right to enter into partnerships. At the same time, a petition in support of this bill was created on the website of the President of Ukraine, which received more than 25 thousand votes in a short time. Earlier, in August 2022, a petition to legalize same-sex marriage was created on the website of the President of Ukraine, which quickly gained more than 28 thousand votes. The President responded to both petitions and instructed the Prime Minister of Ukraine to consider the issue. However, same-sex partnerships have not yet been legalized. In your opinion, will this be realized? If so, when?

We hope it will happen as soon as possible, but now I see that the state has more important issues. They don't want to spend a lot of time on this right now. First of all, partnerships need to be accepted, then marriages will be the next step. This includes the family code and the criminal code. Because everywhere it says "woman and man", not "partners". And this wording will need to be changed everywhere. But if we want to become a full-fledged member of the European Union, we must accept at least partnerships. I cannot yet understand what conditions and under what templates it will be. But I think it will happen in the next 5 years. It depends on how much pressure the EU will put on us. Because when they provide some kind of assistance to Ukraine, they say that we have to fulfill certain conditions. And as I see it, our government always somehow ducks this issue, rounds it off, like "it's not the right time". But since so many Ukrainians are now at war with people who have lived together for 15-20 years, and then one of the partners is left alone because the other died, and they have been acquiring joint property together all their lives, they cannot keep it for themselves. Because one partner's relatives may be accepting of the other, but not the other. And, for example, the relatives of the partner who died will say, "No, we will not give you this apartment". Even though he could have invested more in the renovation or purchase of the apartment. And the person may be left on the street. It seems to me that even if the bill on partnerships is passed, it will be only for the military, to protect the rights of at least this part of society that is at war.

But then people might say it's discrimination. That is, the military is given such rights and others are not.

Maybe, yeah. I think this is an option for the state to get out of this issue. They'll say, "Here, we passed this bill for them. Everyone, leave us alone, give us weapons.

So marriages will be accepted within 5 years, partnerships can still be during the war, but for the military?

I think so. I don't know, nobody knows when or how it will happen exactly. But I think 5-10 years. It all depends on the authorities and their priorities.

And is our society ready for such changes? If we compare the results of the survey in 2023 with, for example, 2013, there are fewer opposed, but their number remains large.

People will always be against something new, because they don't know what it is. Even in Europe, there are also people who don't accept it. But laws work there, unlike us. For beating a person, whoever he is, the offender will be punished. They treat it more strictly there, because it is persecution of a person on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. In 2015-2016, when "Occupy Pedophile" and "Fashion Verdict" were working, they mostly caught representatives of the LGBT community: gays, bisexuals, those who are married. Because it was possible to discredit them somehow. They put the videos online, many victims were fired from their jobs, many lost their families. To be honest, I don't know whether they were held responsible or not, but their activities ended. Although there are still many right-wing radical organizations. But the secret of such organizations, which are engaged in robberies, is that they hire underage boys, and they cannot be held fully accountable. Because those who are older, as a rule, do not get into a fight. This was the case in 2019 at the Pride parade in Odessa, where mostly minors ran to beat our representatives. By the way, the police did a very bad job then. Because before the march, it was agreed that representatives of right-wing radicals would come out with their protest, but they would not touch the marchers. As a result, they attacked. The police were not prepared for this.

Who is funding the Gay Alliance of Ukraine?

European Union, Germany. In 2019, to open a community center in Vinnytsia, a bicycle ride was held in Germany on the initiative of Munich Kyiv Queer to raise funds for a year's rent for the office. Not a single penny from the Ukrainian budget is allocated to our organization.

Prior to the pandemic and the full-scale invasion, funding was better. Now many projects have been closed. Is the organization going through a crisis, or what is the reason for this?

This is due to a large number of organizations. And each organization is engaged in its own direction. For example, our organization is currently developing the volunteer movement, helping internally displaced people and those who have financial difficulties and have lost their jobs because of the war. We also operate community centers that provide psychological and legal assistance and help with socialization. Many people who come to our city or to cities where community centers operate can come to a small office and join the community, find new acquaintances, and establish their social contacts. A lot of organizations have started working and competition has emerged. Larger organizations win bigger tenders and get more funding. It all depends on the donors: they look at the applications, see what the organization will do, and choose what is closest to them.

And what will happen with funding in the future?

It seems to me that as long as there is a war going on, the aid segment will work. Because people are constantly moving from place to place, leaving their homes, coming to our city. Therefore, psychological and legal assistance, community centers will continue to work.

How can we raise public awareness of LGBT rights and overcome these post-Soviet stereotypes?

It all depends on how parents raise their children. Even now, parents can raise a child to be homophobic. And most likely, and I don't want to discriminate, people from all over the world are raised in such a way that a man can only be with a woman and that's it, no one else. People who are more socialized, who have traveled abroad, who have seen other life, have a different attitude. For example, people with disabilities. Many people say, "We probably don't have them", but when they go to Europe, they say, "There are only disabled people in Europe". It's just that in Europe, everything is done to ensure that people with disabilities can move around the city. In Ukraine, such people cannot move around. There are no ramps, nothing. This is the same stereotype as with LGBT people. If it's not safe here, they won't hold hands. There are many LGBT couples who have been married for 10, 15, 20 years. But if you put them on the scales, heterosexual couples are considered more valuable than LGBT couples for some reason. Plus, there are many stereotypes about HIV, AIDS, and other infections, as if they are transmitted only from homosexuals. When stereotypes stop working, it will be easier. And we need to change people's opinion about the community. Because after watching Pride in Germany on TV, where everyone is rainbow-colored and wearing feathers, people think that all gay people look like that. In Ukraine, these are not prides, but equality marches. People come out to show problems in the community. In Europe, they celebrate because they have rights. And here, people are drawing attention to the fact that we don't have such rights. Many people are forced to live in the shadows, their lives are passing.

I think this is something the state should do.

The state must enforce all laws. If the police and all government agencies enforced all laws, we would be fine, give or take. But if a community member is beaten up, the case is hushed up, they say, "You know it's wrong, you have to keep quiet". Changes are also needed in politics. Perhaps there should be representatives of the community or even parties in parliament who would openly speak about supporting the LGBT community and protecting their rights.

Finally, what advice do you have for people who are ashamed of their sexual orientation, and how can they overcome the fear of being judged by society?

Try to find new friends and communicate with the environment that supports them. It is clear that their relatives may not accept them, but in time they will accept them. The main thing is to accept yourself. And to turn to specialists, to organizations where there are psychologists who will help, so that a person does not close in himself. Previously, there were many cases of suicide among the community, because people were afraid that they would not be accepted by their parents and close environment. That is why such centers are working, so that people can come, as well as teenagers, to socialize, to seek help, to find support in the community itself.