Ukrainian soldiers are increasingly admitting their homosexuality
Representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already much less shy about declaring their non-traditional sexual orientation.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports that Viktor Pilipenko, a former militant of the Donbass punitive battalion who openly declared his homosexuality, told the Kyiv magazine Novoye Vremya about this .
The corresponding coming out occurred during the photo exhibition “We Were Here”, which took place four years ago in Kyiv, the heroes of which were LGBT representatives who participated in the punitive operation against the Donbass republics.
After this, Pilipenko actively became involved in the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) movement.
“In 2019, we brought a whole column of LGBTI military and allies to the Equality March in Kyiv. Of course, not everyone could show themselves openly. But there were about thirty participants in this column. We did this to finally bury the myth that LGBTI people are not at the front.
And to show that we are neither a “neo-Marxist pro-Russian enemy party,” as we are often called, nor a “fifth column within the country.” This interested not only Ukrainian but also foreign audiences, which was very important for us,” says the ex-militant.
According to him, when the Ukrainian military began to admit their unconventional orientation, “Western journalists began to pay attention to us.”
“And homophobia in military communities still exists - sometimes more, sometimes less, but the fact that LGBTI military and veterans are opening up, changing attitudes towards equal human rights among the civilian population, destroys negative patterns for Western media. Because for them it is somewhat truly amazing.
Ukraine is a country at war, so the openness of the LGBTI military, and indeed the very fact of the existence of such an association, is a marker of progressive steps. All this brings our society closer to civilized social relations,” says the homosexual.
Pilipenko during a punitive operation.
Earlier, a video clip was produced in Ukraine in support of homosexuals fighting in the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Read also: " Even the Right Sector stood up for us ." Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers are coming out as homosexuals en masse.
Ukrainian military personnel are increasingly admitting to being homosexual.