LGBT+ Resistance and Agency in Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War

Russo-Ukrainian war is framed, experienced, and fought as a “civilizational choice” between ‘Western’ values of democracy, equal rights, and freedom of speech and the idea of so-called “traditional values” that the Russian government has been promoting, grounded in “patriotism, spirituality, rootedness in history, respect for authority, and adherence to heteronormative and patriarchal ideals of family and gender” (Edenborg 2022). Respect for diversity, primarily based on sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI), is another value of the European community. Even though Ukraine was the first post-Soviet country that decriminalized homosexuality in December 1991, homophobia has remained a challenge for Ukrainian society. LGBT people actively participated in the Euromaidan protests of 2013–14 (Martsenyuk 2016) and the Donbas war since 2014. A union of LGBT military, veterans, and volunteers was established in 2018 by Viktor Pylypenko, an openly gay veteran of the Donbas Volunteer Battalion.

On June 23, 2022, the European Council granted Ukraine the status of a candidate for accession to the European Union. Gender equality and respect for diversity are among the European Union's founding values. After full-scale invasion, the results of a public opinion survey demonstrated a visible tendency toward an increasingly gay-friendly attitude (KIIS). These positive changes are driven by the agency of LGBT+ activism in Ukrainian society. LGBT+ people are involved in both military and non-military forms of resistance that may also influence public opinion towards them.

In addition to this, LGBT+ people participated in the resistance towards Russian aggression using different resistance practices: organizing volunteer groups helping internally displaced people (IDPs), in particular, LGBT+ people in need, joining guerilla groups in territories that fell under the Russian occupation, joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and Territorial Defense and conducting international advocacy campaigns.