Saturday, October 5, 2024

LGBTQ Soldiers in Ukraine Hope Their Service Is Changing Attitudes as They Rally for Legal Rights

Published:

, Ukraine — Several hundred Ukrainian servicemen and their supporters marched in central Kyiv Sunday to demand more rights and highlight their service to their country in its war with Russia.

The servicemembers — many wearing rainbow and unicorn patches on their uniforms — called on the government to grant them official partnership rights. They described the event as a pride march but it did not have the celebratory atmosphere of peacetime events and took place in the rain and under a heavy police guard amid threats from counterprotesters.

The role of LGBTQ members in the military has been credited with shifting public attitudes toward same-sex partnerships in the socially conservative country.

“We are ordinary people who are fighting on an equal footing with everyone else, but deprived of the rights that other people have,” Dmitriy Pavlov, an soldier who used a cane to walk, told The Associated Press.

Campaigners are seeking legal reforms to allow people in same-sex partnerships to take medical decisions for wounded soldiers and bury victims of the war that extended across Ukraine more than two years ago.

They argue that an improvement in gay rights would create a further distinction between Ukraine and Russia, where LGBTQ rights are severely restricted.

Staff from the U.S. Embassy and several European embassies attended the pride rally.

Organizers had faced difficulties in organizing the rally.

Continue Reading This Article At Military.com

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