While everyone in Ukraine may be at similar risk to having their homes destroyed by Russian bombs, the people of Ukraine don’t have equal access to asylum and, if Putin succeeds in a complete takeover, there may be a stark disparity of treatment among Ukrainians, depending on other axes of oppression.
Lesbian and gay people will find it particularly hard to discover safe passage to other countries and, even more difficult, will be living under Putin if he gains full control of Ukraine. Luckily there are some angels out there. Viktória Radványi, communications director for Budapest Pride, drove to the border between Hungary and Ukraine with her girlfriend. There they met with four LGBT Ukrainian refugees and took them back to Budapest to give them food, mental health resources, and a roof over their heads.
Viktória isn’t part of a humanitarian group. She has no experience with resettling refugees. But when she heard of the Russian invasion brutalizing Ukraine, she knew gay people, especially, needed help to escape – and fast. ”We know that people who say that everybody suffers from war the same way, that that’s not true,” she’s quoted as saying in NPR. “And we know that in situations of huge crisis, vulnerable groups of society will become especially vulnerable. So that was already in our hearts and minds.”
The problem with gay and lesbian Ukrainians fleeing to Poland and Hungary, which many are, is that the two countries have been condemned by the European Union for their harsh treatment of gay people. “In Poland, gay couples can’t marry, form civil unions or adopt children. In 2019, an opinion poll found that almost a quarter of Polish people believe that homosexuality must not be tolerated, and there are so-called “LGBTQ-free” zones across the country.”
That’s why Viktória and her girlfriend’s efforts are way beyond a regular good samaritan deed: if lesbian and gay people are left to refugee camps then they’ll suffer unique, homophobic discrimination. Julia Maciocha, a Polish LGBT activist also helping gay Ukrainians get out of the country, said, “We don’t want them to be kept in refugee camps or in big buildings or huge places where they are not safe because of course homophobia is still existing in Poland. We want to make sure they’re placed with people who understand their needs.”
Julia’s hope is that LGBT activists like herself can help gay Ukrainians cross the border, where they can stay for a few weeks or months and, if Poland or Hungary’s homophobia is too much, they can safely move on to Western Europe, where the law and culture is more gay-friendly. “So what we can do here is just welcome them and help them in the first place,” she said.
This is a pattern when war or invasion breaks out where homophobia is rife. Whether it be fleeing Turkey, Afghanistan, Central America or Syria, being homosexual is an added hurdle to escaping, finding safety, maintaining safety, and building a life afterwards.
Like the gay concentration camps in Chechnya, a constituent republic of Russia, the Taliban compiled LGBT “kill lists” after its return to power, despite claiming they wouldn’t. Only this year, Russia attempted to shut down a prominent gay rights group. At the end of 2021, Russia considered limiting gay media to “special access,” as with pornography. It’s a fact that Putin dismantles gay rights as a way to control Russian people.
Putin “justifies” the invasion of Ukraine on the basis of “denazification.” Sounds like projection, right? Well Putin’s idea of “nazi” is someone who pushes a more equal, democratic agenda that prevents him from usurping complete power and control. Like a Men’s Rights Activist, Putin feels entitled to inflicting violence on other people and anybody who questions him, or even pushes for their country to exhibit something different, is somehow oppressing him, personally.
Is it any wonder that Putin and Trump were buddy-buddy? Men like Putin and Trump consider themselves entitled to do whatever the fuck they want, at the expense of whoever the fuck they want. In their opinion, it’s whoever’s most tough, most strong, most brutal, most cunning, most ruthless, that deserves to rule any part, or all, of the world. Empathy and ethics don’t play a role.
Putin is flexing this insane ideology as a reaction to democratic things like gay rights. Gay people suffer invasions at the hands of people like Putin or groups like the Taliban in a unique way because gay rights are the exact freedoms dictators and authoritarianism refuse the people they rule.
Aaron Morris, from the U.S. based gay rights group Immigration Equality, said that there is a pattern of gay people being victims to attacks and discrimination when dictorial regimes invade. “Often when they flee through another country in hopes of getting to a place where they will feel safe, they are ostracized. They don’t have the same access to family support, to religious-based support, that other other minorities might,” he said.
It’s up to countries like the U.S. to step in and walk the walk, prove they actually support gay rights.
