A Kiev magazine filmed with a hidden camera the reaction of Kiev residents to gays walking around the city
The authors of the ChebuRussia TV project published a video where they recorded the reaction of city residents to guys who walk around Moscow holding hands. The video has already collected more than eight million views.
In Ukraine, this experiment also sparked controversy and debate about how differently such a couple would have been treated, for example, in Kyiv. Bird In Flight decided to test this by filming Zorian and Timur on a hidden camera as they strolled through crowded places.
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“In medicine there is such a treatment method - provocation. Some infections cannot be cured until you force them to appear “in all their glory.” This is exactly what the guys from Bird In Flight magazine did, inviting us to become heroes of a social experiment. Homophobia is also, in my opinion, a kind of disease. A healthy person, confident in his heterosexuality, will not attack a gay man, no matter how provocatively he behaves,” says Zoryan Kys, one of the guys who played a role in the impromptu provocation.
According to him, the majority of Kiev residents calmly reacted to the demonstration of pointedly homosexual behavior.
“Of course, in real life, Timur and I (and we’ve been together for almost four years) never sit on each other’s laps and don’t even walk down the street holding hands. We don't feel the need for this. When we walked around Kyiv like this for more than an hour, we did not notice a single sharply aggressive reaction. Most people who paid attention to us at all simply found it hard to believe their eyes. We decided to sharpen the situation a little: I sat on a bench on Khreshchatyk, and Timur sat on my lap. Of course, we were ready for anything, especially after we attended the equality march,” says Zoryan Kys.
A Kyiv magazine filmed Kyiv residents' reactions to gays strolling around the city with a hidden camera.