KYIVPRIDE 2024 THROUGH THE EYES OF AN EYEWITNESS

Pride month 2024 surprised the whole Ukraine with a brave act of Kyiv activists. Pride during martial law was held after all. Opinions about the event vary greatly, both among LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ citizens.

According to one of the participants of the march, the entire march consisted of approximately 500 people. People who were known to the organisers visually or were personally acquainted with them were allowed in without checking their documents. One of the security measures was a mandatory online registration form, but this measure did not work one hundred per cent. Some people were checked very thoroughly.

There was a lot of press, including TSN, Novy Channel, 1+1, many independent journalists, the event was supported by well-known LGBTIQ+ friendly bloggers and celebrities. The column of the trans community was the smallest, there was only one trans flag (during martial law trans people have the hardest time in terms of support and understanding in the society, especially it is difficult to get access to medicine and legal aid in the regions).

Officially the march lasted about half an hour (including the gathering of participants), the participants walked about a hundred meters. The first column was KyivPride, the second LGBT military, then KharkivPride, RizniRivni (DifferentEqual), then there were those who came without a column on their own, and at the very end there was a column of Drag Queens.

There were a lot of foreigners, among whom we noticed representatives of embassies, as well as ordinary people expressing their solidarity and support. But the question arises, how they got inside the column, if the mandatory condition for participation was to fill in the online application form. For everyone but the organisers this omission will remain a mystery.

Passers-by foreigners joined in, not feeling threatened by the radical opponents and not realising that being in the column might not be too safe, because Pride in Kyiv is always accompanied by actions against it and attempts to prevent attempts on the life, health and human dignity of the participants.

There were no particular incidents of attacks (most likely, because the event did not last long).

But radical groups still held counter-protests against LGBTQ+ people in key areas of the city, divided by the proposed locations of the march, including Zvirynetska and Khreshchatyk metro stations. Opponents of the Pride march were late, but they broke through the live circle of police officers and attempted to deface posters and paraphernalia.

There were also incidents with attempts of the representatives of the Territorial Centre to hand summonses to the participants, the police tried not to interfere in these actions. Police officers were clearly dissatisfied with holding actions and demonstrations during the martial law.

(I would like to understand and accept all points of view, looking at them from different angles, but still I reserve the right to comment on this situation with a quote from an intelligent and tolerant person: ‘in a road accident where two vehicles collided, no one is right - everyone is to blame, namely for not adequately assessing the situation and shifting the responsibility for their actions to another person").

An eyewitness who shared his impressions and the events he saw, wished to remain anonymous, for security reasons.

Photo suspilne_kyiv