Thousands took to the streets of Warsaw on Saturday in a joint march to unite Ukraine’s Kiev Pride with Poland’s Warsaw Pride. The innovative cooperative event between the two Eastern European capitals called for an end to the war and solidarity with LGBTQ Ukrainians.
“It was wonderful and beautiful, a very exciting present,” Lenny Emson, kievpride The executive director told NBC News just after March.
Organizers had predicted around 120,000 participants, and Emson said the Ukrainian contingent alone more than doubled their expected 200 marches.
“More than 500 Ukrainians marched with our group,” he said.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of KievPride’s first equality march – the largest LGBTQ rights event in Ukraine – but the Russian invasion and ongoing war made it impossible to march in the Ukrainian capital.
“When we looked into the future, we realized that unfortunately we could not see when the war would stop, or how we might actually appear as a community,” Emson explained. “During the Russian invasion, Warsaw Pride was always helping us with humanitarian aid and medicines, and they were sheltering our people. So it was very natural for us to partner with the nation that had the largest number of Ukrainian refugees. has been accepted.”
For Warsaw Pride President Julia Masiocha, the Kievpride partnership also made perfect sense.
“They explained how they should celebrate their 10-year anniversary, but of course because of this terrible war, they can’t do it in Kyiv,” she said. “So they asked if they could use Warsaw Pride and do a joint march, to let them walk our streets because they couldn’t walk on their own.”
The joint KievPride and Warsaw Pride March launched a multi-faceted . promoted manifestoIncluding calls for people in Europe and around the world to queue up to show “maximum solidarity” with LGBTQ Ukrainians.
“If you want the queer community to survive in Ukraine, help our country,” Emson urged. “That’s the main message.”
Emson said he believes Warsaw’s Equality Parade – the largest annual Pride March in Central Europe – could mark a pride parade for the first time not only for LGBTQ rights but also for wider human rights.
“We are marching for basic human rights for all people,” he said, “because right now, Russia is taking them from us – the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to security, the right to peace.”
Although members of the Ukrainian military – and indeed all men between the ages of 18 and 60 – were barred by law in Poland from leaving the country in today’s march, Kievpride organizers were able to bring in 25 activists from LGBTQ organizations across Ukraine .
“We wanted our LGBTQI movement to be represented, and these are the very best in our movement who work with us,” Emson said.
Ukrainian refugees living in Poland and neighboring countries were also warmly invited to take part in the Warsaw March. Not so eagerly embraced a pro-Russian group of potential marchers, who were told in no uncertain terms that promoting Russia would be forbidden.
“The goal of his group was to advocate for a free Russia and for Russians against war,” Emson said. “We politely asked them not to do this. ‘You can march with us,’ we told them, ‘but please don’t preach anything related to Russia. Please don’t take our place from us.’
“If people want to advocate for a free Russia, there are places where these actions will make more sense – for example, in front of the Russian consulate,” Emson said.
Masiocha said the pairing of Warsaw Pride with KievPride was not only critically important, but also exactly the kind of intra-European communication she was striving for, with Warsaw-based LGBTQ activism.
“I am putting a lot of effort into building alliances and building bridges with activists from across Europe,” Maciocha explained. “I am trying to connect us, to stay in touch, to know what is happening in different countries, to know what are the biggest conflicts in different countries around Poland – so that we can have a We can support each other, we can help each other, and we can learn from each other’s experiences.
“So to me, this situation where Kievpride or some other pride can call up the Warsaw pride and say, ‘Listen, we can’t do this without you,’ and they know we’re going to help them – that’s it. That’s the situation I’m fighting for. This is the position I want for the future of activism. I want us to be there for each other in the darkest, worst of times.”
Emson said he and the other marchers were “extremely grateful” to Poland.
“You know, we have the same context. Poland has the same problems with Russia that we do, and the situation of homophobia and transphobia in our countries is more or less the same,” he said. “I would say in Ukraine it’s a little bad, but still, they understand us. They know us, and we understand them, we know them. So this partnership was very natural.”
Kievpride is being represented locally at several other Pride events around the world this year, including Riga Pride in Latvia last weekend. On Sunday, Toronto’s Pride March will include a large Ukrainian contingent in the city with the largest Ukrainian expatriate population in the world.
“For local pride in other cities and countries, we let people decide what their goal is,” Emson said. Some Ukrainians, like London, want to appear as a group at their local Pride events, he explained, while others are raising money for Kievpride and the LGBTQ community in Ukraine. Still others have specific purposes.
“For example in Riga, they were marching for independence,” Emson said. “It was very important to them, because Latvia is Russia’s neighbor, and they understand very well what will happen to them if Ukraine doesn’t resist? They will be next. That’s why independence is very important for them now.”
Emson said the important thing for the global LGBTQ community to remember right now is that its queer people, like the entire Ukrainian population, suffer, although their struggles are often less visible.
“We all saw the Buka massacre, and we saw what the Russians did to Mariupol,” he said. “When you see this news from Ukraine, you must ask yourself, ‘How many queer people were killed in Bucha? How many queer people were gunned down in Mariupol? Of all the women, how many homosexuals were raped? Was raped by Russia in the occupied territories?’ These are questions we should be asking ourselves.
“That’s why we ask you not to leave Ukraine, to stand up for Ukraine, to remind the world that Ukraine needs help. When you consider the fact that LGBTQI people are part of the oppressed population inside Ukraine So you’re already helping us.”
Emson is already looking forward to the day KyivPride can welcome LGBTQ people from around the world to the Ukrainian capital.
“When you march today, think of all those LGBTQI Ukrainians who are with you in your thoughts and who can’t march today,” he told the crowd at the start of Saturday’s event. “But they are welcoming you to Kievpride when we celebrate the victory – you will come to Kyiv and march with us.”