The Washington Post published a sweet feature [gift link] centering young Ukrainians, one of whom has been defending her country from Russian invaders in the army for nine years now.
Ukraine does not recognize these women's relationship. But in a country struggling for national freedom, they can at least take a role in agitation for LGBT+ freedoms.
Mariia Volia, 31, a radio specialist now serving in the 47th Brigade in the Donetsk region near the eastern front, has spent nine years fighting for her country. She believes so strongly in Ukraine’s survival that she legally changed her last name to the Ukrainian word for liberty.
But as a lesbian, she — and other LGBTQ+ soldiers — doesn’t qualify for the same rights and benefits as heterosexual troops. ...
Russia’s war has propelled Ukraine ever closer to Europe. Ukraine’s survival depends on its ties to the West — and its image as a bastion of democracy at total odds with Russia’s authoritarianism and conservative social values. But for LGBTQ+ Ukrainians, the reality is more complicated.
LGBTQ+ individuals can serve openly in Ukraine’s armed forces. But several laws that would advance LGBTQ+ rights in Ukraine, including one that would expand hate crimes definitions to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and another that would allow same-sex civil partnerships, have stalled in parliament. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry declined to comment on the unequal treatment of soldiers, saying it was an issue for parliament. A spokeswoman for the ministry said that the ministry created an office for protection of servicemen’s rights to manage alleged cases of human rights violations in the armed forces. ...
The way forward is hard and will be bumpy, but you never know where folks might end up once a vista of freedom, however distant, comes into view.
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