Hits on centres and events last year more than doubled compared with 2019, human rights centre says
03 August 2021 - 17:22
byNatalie Vikhrov
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Law enforcement officers carry an anti-LGBTQ protester, during an attempt to break a rally of LGBTQ+ activists, near the presidential office headquarters in Kyiv, Ukraine July 30 2021. Picture: REUTERS/GLEB GARANICH
For days, death threats and homophobic insults have been pouring into Sofiia Lapina’s messaging inbox — a constant reminder of the hatred she often encounters as an LGBT+ rights activist in Ukraine.
Members of a far-right channel on the Telegram messaging app published Lapina’s phone number last month, and — after a series of recent attacks on the LGBT+ community — she is on edge. Some people have tracked down her address, too.
“They photographed my balcony, the entrance to my building, and they’ve been sending it all to me,” she said.
“It’s difficult to sleep, knowing that people have declared [they are hunting] you.”
Ukraine legalised gay sex in 1991, but conservative elements in the mainly Orthodox Christian nation often speak out against rights for LGBT+ people, and members of the far-right regularly target groups and events linked to the community.
Campaigners said homophobic abuse and violence could be increasing partly because of the growing visibility of the former Soviet nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Clashes broke out on Friday between police and far-right supporters outside the president’s office, where Lapina’s UkrainePride organisation was holding a party to demand LGBT+ equality, local media reported.
Bigger backlash
“The LGBTI movement is becoming more powerful, more productive, more effective,” said Lenny Emson, director of KyivPride, which has pushed back its annual march in the capital from June to September this year due to Covid-19.
“On the other hand, the stronger we are, the bigger the backlash.”
The LGBT Human Rights Nash Mir Center, which monitors anti-LGBT+ violence in Ukraine, recorded 24 attacks on LGBT+ centres and events last year, more than double the figure for 2019.
Police data shows 14 hate crimes were recorded on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in 2019.
But rights organisations said the real number was likely to be much higher, partly because many victims are wary about going to the police.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights received reports of more than 140 incidents — ranging from threats to physical attacks — in Ukraine in 2019.
When such crimes are reported to police, homophobic or transphobic motives are largely ignored, instead being classified as acts of “hooliganism”, Nash Mir Center said.
Draft law
Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs, which is in charge of the police, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ilyess El Kortbi, 24, was attacked in June after attending a protest outside the president’s office in Kyiv to demand a response to anti-LBGT+ attacks and support a draft law that would bolster protections for victims of hate crimes.
He needed hospital treatment after three unidentified people beat him up outside a shop after insulting him.
“I have a concussion ... I can’t walk, I fall over, I’m nauseous,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from a hospital in Kyiv several days after the incident.
In May, about a dozen members of a far-right group raided a screening of an LGBT+ film jointly organised by KyivPride, breaking windows and throwing a flare and a teargas canister into the premises, KyivPride said on Facebook.
A Kyiv police spokesperson said criminal proceedings under the article of hooliganism has been launched over the assault on Kortbi and the film screening unrest.
Two days later, members of another far-right group stormed events organised by LGBT+ rights group Insight in Kyiv and the city of Odessa.
Broken windows
Vandals also attacked the Odessa office of another LGBT+ organisation, LGBTI Association LIGA, the groups said.
“If the police had detained those attackers that tried to disrupt Insight’s event that day, then they wouldn’t have come to our office and broken our windows,” said LIGA chair Oleg Alyokhin.
Police said they reviewed the disruption to Insight’s Kyiv event but found no grounds indicating that a criminal offence had been committed.
Local and international rights groups have condemned the recent spate of attacks in the country, where discrimination against gay people in the workplace was only banned in 2015.
In June, Amnesty International Ukraine described the violence as part of a “targeted campaign of intimidation of feminists and LGBTI activists by groups promoting hatred”.
However, Olena Shevchenko, head of Insight, said a recently proposed anti-discrimination bill could help tackle anti-LGBT+ crimes by giving police a specific mechanism to investigate them.
The draft law, which was submitted in May, proposes adding sexual orientation and gender identity as motives for crimes of intolerance, or hate crimes.
Similar bills were withdrawn last year after lobbying from religious groups, but Andrii Kravchuk from the Nash Mir Center said the latest effort is more promising because it was developed by the police and submitted by the cabinet.
Lapina said she did not have high hopes for justice, citing what she called the inaction of authorities.
“This is activism in Ukraine,” she said. “You’re constantly being pursued.”
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Attacks on Ukraine’s LGBT+ activists increase
Hits on centres and events last year more than doubled compared with 2019, human rights centre says
For days, death threats and homophobic insults have been pouring into Sofiia Lapina’s messaging inbox — a constant reminder of the hatred she often encounters as an LGBT+ rights activist in Ukraine.
Members of a far-right channel on the Telegram messaging app published Lapina’s phone number last month, and — after a series of recent attacks on the LGBT+ community — she is on edge. Some people have tracked down her address, too.
“They photographed my balcony, the entrance to my building, and they’ve been sending it all to me,” she said.
“It’s difficult to sleep, knowing that people have declared [they are hunting] you.”
Ukraine legalised gay sex in 1991, but conservative elements in the mainly Orthodox Christian nation often speak out against rights for LGBT+ people, and members of the far-right regularly target groups and events linked to the community.
Campaigners said homophobic abuse and violence could be increasing partly because of the growing visibility of the former Soviet nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Clashes broke out on Friday between police and far-right supporters outside the president’s office, where Lapina’s UkrainePride organisation was holding a party to demand LGBT+ equality, local media reported.
Bigger backlash
“The LGBTI movement is becoming more powerful, more productive, more effective,” said Lenny Emson, director of KyivPride, which has pushed back its annual march in the capital from June to September this year due to Covid-19.
“On the other hand, the stronger we are, the bigger the backlash.”
The LGBT Human Rights Nash Mir Center, which monitors anti-LGBT+ violence in Ukraine, recorded 24 attacks on LGBT+ centres and events last year, more than double the figure for 2019.
Police data shows 14 hate crimes were recorded on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in 2019.
But rights organisations said the real number was likely to be much higher, partly because many victims are wary about going to the police.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights received reports of more than 140 incidents — ranging from threats to physical attacks — in Ukraine in 2019.
When such crimes are reported to police, homophobic or transphobic motives are largely ignored, instead being classified as acts of “hooliganism”, Nash Mir Center said.
Draft law
Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs, which is in charge of the police, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ilyess El Kortbi, 24, was attacked in June after attending a protest outside the president’s office in Kyiv to demand a response to anti-LBGT+ attacks and support a draft law that would bolster protections for victims of hate crimes.
He needed hospital treatment after three unidentified people beat him up outside a shop after insulting him.
“I have a concussion ... I can’t walk, I fall over, I’m nauseous,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from a hospital in Kyiv several days after the incident.
In May, about a dozen members of a far-right group raided a screening of an LGBT+ film jointly organised by KyivPride, breaking windows and throwing a flare and a teargas canister into the premises, KyivPride said on Facebook.
A Kyiv police spokesperson said criminal proceedings under the article of hooliganism has been launched over the assault on Kortbi and the film screening unrest.
Two days later, members of another far-right group stormed events organised by LGBT+ rights group Insight in Kyiv and the city of Odessa.
Broken windows
Vandals also attacked the Odessa office of another LGBT+ organisation, LGBTI Association LIGA, the groups said.
“If the police had detained those attackers that tried to disrupt Insight’s event that day, then they wouldn’t have come to our office and broken our windows,” said LIGA chair Oleg Alyokhin.
Police said they reviewed the disruption to Insight’s Kyiv event but found no grounds indicating that a criminal offence had been committed.
Local and international rights groups have condemned the recent spate of attacks in the country, where discrimination against gay people in the workplace was only banned in 2015.
In June, Amnesty International Ukraine described the violence as part of a “targeted campaign of intimidation of feminists and LGBTI activists by groups promoting hatred”.
However, Olena Shevchenko, head of Insight, said a recently proposed anti-discrimination bill could help tackle anti-LGBT+ crimes by giving police a specific mechanism to investigate them.
The draft law, which was submitted in May, proposes adding sexual orientation and gender identity as motives for crimes of intolerance, or hate crimes.
Similar bills were withdrawn last year after lobbying from religious groups, but Andrii Kravchuk from the Nash Mir Center said the latest effort is more promising because it was developed by the police and submitted by the cabinet.
Lapina said she did not have high hopes for justice, citing what she called the inaction of authorities.
“This is activism in Ukraine,” she said. “You’re constantly being pursued.”
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Exiled Belarus activist found hanged in park
Transgender athlete debate rages at Games as weightlifting events go on
EU leaders talk tough with Hungary's Orban over LGBT rights
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Related Articles
Hungary faces EU wrath for LGBTQ referendum
CARMEL RICKARD: Ruling out prejudice
Hungary emulates Russia in targeting LGBTQ community to retain power
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.