A Queer Ukrainian has spoken about her excitement after Liverpool announced it would be hosting KyivPride.
Activist Mariia Goubernik, living in Wavertree, is looking forward to seeing the city continue on the legacy of Eurovision and stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community in her home country come July. However, the 23-year-old hopes the celebrations go beyond a party as she highlighted the differences between Pride in Liverpool and Pride in Ukraine.
The sex therapist and blogger, who is pansexual, told the ECHO: “It was a nice surprise to see the announcement. I’m happy because I know people in KyivPride so it will be nice to see friends. But we should all be aware KyivPride was held in Warsaw last year and it’s different to Liverpool because lots of Ukrainians can travel to Warsaw.
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"Liverpool is much harder to get to. Ukrainians can’t just decide to travel here, we need a visa and there’s much more distance. It will be nice but not such a big boom in comparison to Warsaw.
“On one hand it is cool, the connection between Ukraine and Liverpool is continuing after Eurovision but Pride for us is a moment of unity and there will only be a certain number of queer Ukrainians who are already in the UK who will be able to travel.”
Every year, thousands of people from the community and its allies from across the Liverpool City Region march in solidarity, protest, and celebration as part of the city’s Pride event. In 2022, more than 15,000 took to the streets turning the city into a sea of rainbows.
Due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it is currently illegal for groups to stage marches through the city. Therefore, this year Liverpool will host Kyiv’s annual Pride March on behalf of Ukraine on Saturday July 29.
KyivPride was established in 2012 and has been working to champion the rights of LGBT+ people living in Ukraine, even before the Russian invasion. Their work includes providing a safe space in the capital of Ukraine, where people can work, warm up or make friends, and holding weekly online support sessions with LGBT+-friendly practitioners.
KyivPride campaigns year-round for full respect for LGBTQ+ people’s human rights in Ukraine, by raising visibility and encouraging their participation in social processes and activities. In addition, it also hosts Ukraine’s largest LGBTQ+ event KyivPride annually in June.
Mariia, who has attended KyivPride most years since 2015, hopes this year will have deeper discussions around LGBTQ+ rights in the Eastern Europe country - in her words “go beyond waving a blue and yellow flag”.
She said: “Visually, at Eurovision, there was a lot of Ukrainian support but for me, it didn’t go beyond words and flags. During Pride, I would love to see the narrative of queer soldiers being included and civil partnerships.
“There are queer soldiers fighting and struggling now who if they were to die, their partners would have no legal right to anything because civil partnerships are taking a long time to come into law.
“These important questions need to be asked because the main difference between the two countries Pride’s is that in Liverpool it has become much more of a party and has been for a long time, but Pride in Ukraine is still a major protest and that is how many Ukrainians view Pride. For us, the fight is not over, the UK has achieved a lot more than Ukraine has.”
Mariia attended the first ever KyivPride in 2015 - an event she recalled as “really scary and dangerous”. Those marching faced opposition from “religious protesters and aggressive far-right groups” and as a result of this, Mariia remembers there being more police in attendance than there were people celebrating Pride.
Since then, KyivPride has become safer each year and enjoyed by a much larger number of LGBTQ+ folk, with it becoming “the most powerful queer organisation in Ukraine.”
Lenny Emson, a founding member of KyivPride and who has led the organisation as an executive director for the last two years, said: “The Russian invasion took our right to march away from us. But international solidarity gives us a chance to keep marching for Ukraine, for LGBTQI rights, for freedom.
“Last year, Warsaw Pride welcomed KyivPride in the capital of Poland. This year, Liverpool stands up for Ukrainian LGBTQI people. We call on all the communities across the United Kingdom and Europe: please, come and support the joint KyivPride and Liverpool March with Pride. Be there, be political, be visible.”
LCR Pride Foundation and KyivPride have called for LGBTQ+ people and allies from the region and the people of Ukraine who are now part of said communities and beyond to join in this collaborative celebratory event.
March with Pride is a walking march and free to attend for all individuals. Organisations and businesses that wish to take part are asked to make a suggested donation to help LCR Pride Foundation, the regional charity, cover the costs of staging the event.
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