Tens of thousands of people joined in Ukraine's largest LGBTQ rights parade, held in the Polish capital, Warsaw, after organizers determined they could not hold the event in Kyiv due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
KyivPride, which would have been staging the 10th Equality March in Ukraine, instead merged this year with gay-pride events in Warsaw on June 25.
“We are marching for political support for Ukraine, and we’re marching for basic human rights for Ukrainian people,” KyivPride director Lenny Emson was quoted as saying on June 25. “It is not a celebration. We will wait for victory to celebrate.”
Emson said the introduction of martial law in the Ukrainian capital following the Russian invasion prevents large gatherings such as KyivPride.
“We are marching for political support for Ukraine, and we’re marching for basic human rights for Ukrainian people,” KyivPride director Lenny Emson said.
Organizers have said they expect about 80,000 participants at the Warsaw event, and KyivPride in May called on "people around the world to join the march in Warsaw and stand with us against aggression, for freedom and peace."
Emson said that the defeat of Ukraine by Russia, where LGBTQ people have no legal protection from discrimination or hate crimes, would be a tragedy for the Ukrainian people as a whole, but that LGBTQ people would risk being “erased completely."
KyivPride has called on people to realize that Ukraine's geographical borders with Belarus and Russia are "not just a separation line between the states, but also a boundary between the territory of freedom and a zone of oppression.”