Solutions from Ukraine: KharkivPride opens with charity and educational PrideFest despite shelling

08.09.2026, 12:22 rubryka.com

A few years ago, LGBT+ issues in Ukraine often seemed like a side concern — something many people considered important, but not urgent. The full-scale war changed that quickly, and not by pushing these issues aside. On the contrary, it made them deeply personal and impossible to ignore. For example, LGBT+ service members defend the country at the front, live under the same risks as their comrades, and face the same threat of death or injury — but their partners still often lack basic legal protection. In wartime, the absence of equal rights becomes not an abstract debate, but a matter of dignity, security, and justice.

What's the solution?

Events like KharkivPride and PrideFest help build a more equal environment by making the community visible, opening public dialogue, and connecting human rights with real wartime experience. They also create space for education, solidarity, and advocacy — from discussions about military service and hate crimes to demands for family partnerships and protection from discrimination. The more society sees LGBT+ people as neighbors, colleagues, medics, volunteers, and soldiers, the harder it becomes to ignore their rights.

Photo source: organizers' archive

The festival took place in a city 30 kilometers from the Russian border, where air alerts are more routine than emergency: in August alone, authorities announced them 286 times. Police guarded the venue, and PrideHub has its own shelter. Organizers did not cancel any event in the program.

Photo source: organizers' archive

Photo source: organizers' archive

"Not the right time" is a familiar way to dismiss the urgent issue of equal rights, which has long needed a solution. But there are other, far more constructive answers.

"Human rights are always timely, because they are the foundation we must create for ourselves. Rights are not given — rights are fought for," says Oleksandr Demenko, head of the NGO Ukrainian LGBT Military for Equal Rights and a veteran who survived captivity. For him, this was his second PrideFest in Kharkiv as a guest on a panel discussion.

In fact, the constant defense of rights brings results, which became clear during PrideFest.

"Could you have imagined this kind of cooperation and courtesy from the police 10 years ago, before the reform? As someone who took part in Euromaidan, I will say this: even people who simply came out with Ukrainian or European flags faced far greater risks than people here, in a safe space with rainbow flags," says Yuliia Bidenko, associate professor at the Department of Political Science at Karazin University and a member of the Team Europe expert network.

She sees two tracks for change: EU support and slow advocacy in communities — the community's participation in discussions on Kharkiv's recovery strategies, "a tedious, painstaking and thankless job" that works for the future.

What will speed up change? Yakiv Lavrynets does not start with legislation: "More Prides, more visibility, more coming-outs — from politics, the military, show business, medicine, and education. When people know a living, real gay man or lesbian in their own circle, and not an abstract figure in feathers at Pride, understanding will be better."

The next event, KharkivPride itself, will take place on September 12. Registration is available via the link. The key demands are the recognition of family partnerships, effective investigations into hate crimes, and the prevention of discriminatory legislative initiatives.