Ukrainian Supreme Court recognizes same-sex couple as a family

(Editor’s note: of International Women’s Media Foundation Women on the Ground: Reporting from Ukraine Unseen Frontlines Initiative and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation funded this report. This report is exclusive to the Washington Blade. )

Ukraine’s LGBTQ war heroes have an opportunity to build community and share their courage.

Despite Russian drones raining down on the capital, Kiev’s gay military and veteran community is gathering in a newly renovated safe space called K-41. This summer, the club was a boiling pot. Ukrainian, German, Dutch and Portuguese DJs played music on a warm September night, and guests gathered outside to dance, listen to lectures and watch movies in the lush gardens.

One of my recent lectures was on “Nondiscrimination Practices for LGBTQ People in the Workplace.” For many local residents, their workplaces are now the first line of defense in the fight against Russian forces attacking Ukraine’s eastern, northern and southern regions. And when the veterans return to their communities for a break, they take up another fight, for human rights and against discrimination. Their battle does not stop on the front lines.

The number of LGBTQ heroes is growing. Sadly, so too are the number of people who have fallen. In the center is a wall covered with soldier patches.

“Soldiers and veterans are coming in and sticking their insignias on this wall. We have welcomed over 700 members into the LGBTQ Veterans and Military Club,” one of the center’s founders, Victor Pirypenko, a 38-year-old veteran, proudly told the Washington Blade. The openly gay man volunteered to fight for his country from 2014 to 2016 and from 2022 to 2024.

As Pilypenko showed me around the club on a recent night, he pointed out a portrait on the wall of another war hero, Oleksandr Demenko, the new leader of the NGO LGBT Servicemen and Veterans of Ukraine for Equal Rights. He is a survivor of the hellish battle in Mariupol and 20 horrific months of imprisonment in Russia.

“I always eat the edges of my pizza because I know that my brothers in arms don’t have enough food or water in prison right now,” Demenko wrote recently, sharing her feelings with her Facebook readers.

Demenko, a decorated officer, was one of about 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers defending Azov Steel, a giant Soviet-era steel mill that was besieged during fighting for the city of Mariupol from February to May 2022.

Elton John helped Ukraine’s gay heroes, thanks to British photographer Jesse Glazard, who followed the lives of gay soldiers in Ukraine.

“Elton John and his partner David Furnish bought the Glazard photo in May and helped fund the rebuilding of the center,” Pilipenko told the Blade. “We refurbished two rooms in the space and purchased furniture and a movie screen for LGBTQ veterans, the largest military community in Eastern Europe.”

Demenko and his boyfriend recently got engaged, and the fight to legalize same-sex marriage has become personal. Pilypenko and Demenko went to the Kiev Court of Appeals last month to uphold their first legal marriage.

“All same-sex couples in our country hope that President Zelensky will allow us to get married. This is our human right, together with all our citizens,” Demenko, a decorated military veteran, said in a recent interview.

For most members of the community, the war began with Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Among the many self-defense volunteers, Pirypenko also joined in the eastern region of Ukraine to protect his homeland. He served for almost two years. Homophobia was so strong at the time that he locked himself in a closet while on duty. Returning to Kiev, Pilypenko tried to rebuild a peaceful life, attending university and completing a master’s degree in technical and scientific translation from English and French.

However, the conflict with Russia did not stop. In the early morning hours of February 24, 2022, it escalated into a full-scale Russian invasion. Pilypenko was visiting his parents in the town of Borodyanka, a suburb north of Kiev. Russian artillery bombardment blew up buildings in Volodyanka, killing hundreds of civilians.

Without thinking twice, Pilipenko volunteered to defend his country again, this time openly as a homosexual.

“At one point, I pulled out my cell phone with a rainbow K-41 club sticker on it, and the sergeant asked me in front of everyone if I was gay. I said yes. The commander, who was only 22 years old, had no problem with that,” Pilypenko said.

During the Battle of Kiev, his platoon defended the capital from the trenches during freezing cold days and nights, saving lives by evacuating armed and wounded compatriots to hospitals. Pilypenko’s military experience came in handy. And after Kiev, he fought in the Sumy and Kharkov regions. Some campaigns have had “disastrous results,” he said.

Last year, Pilypenko had to resign to care for his father, who was “like a baby after a stroke.” The law allowed it. Shortly after his return from the front, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church honored him for his “courage and love for Ukraine.”

“I thanked the Church and Patriarch Filaret, who once famously said that homosexuals created the coronavirus disease. I expressed hope that the priest would reject homophobia, but he immediately revoked my medal that same day,” Pilipenko said. “Immediately a flash mob started, soldiers who had previously received the same medal stood in solidarity with me and condemned it. The brotherhood of soldiers is great.”

Fighting for survival during a war is exhausting. The fight for human rights in this war-torn country is exhausting. Ukraine’s LGBTQ community is vibrant, active, and well-organized. Activists across the country are working with prominent civil liberties organizations to fight human rights, judicial reform, and corruption. Olena Shevchenko, 42, leader of Insight, an organization focused on LGBTQ and feminist activism, says she doesn’t have time to live: “I don’t have a life. I’m constantly fighting.”

Insight Community Center is a cozy home located in the hip area of ​​Kiev’s Old Town Podil. For nearly four years, Insight activists have provided aid, legal support, and shelter to communities, organized art exhibitions, and participated in anti-corruption and pro-democracy movements.

“Three days ago, homophobes attacked our center in Lviv, and before that in Ivanofrankivsk. Several thugs attacked our exhibition in the city of Chernivtsi,” Shevchenko told the Blade. “They keep coming, breaking windows and spraying paint on the walls to simulate blood. Their goal is to disrupt our events. They spray tear gas and terrorize our activists.”

Shevchenko said attacks on LGBTQ centers across the country are being orchestrated by far-right groups.

“One group is called Carpathian Sici, another is the Brotherhood led by Dmytro Kolchinsky, and various new groups and networks are being launched frequently, such as Tradition and Order,” she said. “About a year ago, we noticed that they were receiving some funds. They were putting up homophobic posters and offensive stickers. We can see that the money is coming to them. If before it was coming from Russia, now it is also coming from the United States.”

Despite the attacks and risks, the community lives on. Like many Ukrainians in the rear, Shevchenko considered the fight against human rights and corruption to be just as important as the fight on the front.

“If we don’t fight for democracy, who will? If we stop, our country will be worse off. This is not just an LGBTQ issue. This is an issue of freedom, democracy and the spirit of being able to fight for what’s right,” she said. “Our government should remember how good we are still at self-organizing. We have always been here and this is our front line. We must pursue democracy at every level.”