(16 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv - 16 June 2024
1. Various of LGBTQ+ supporters holding banners
2. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Dmytro, 32, (last name not given because of safety reasons) veteran of the war:
“I decided to join because I want to defend my rights. Just like I stood up for the state in my time. I want the state to defend my rights, my right to freedom, my right to protection, my right to love, my right to be myself.”
3.Wide of Kyiv pride march
4. Person making speech
5. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Viktor Pylypenko, 38, Ukrainian serviceman of 72nd brigade:
"We have two demands. To the Ukrainian state: to ensure equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community, LGBTQ+ defenders. And to the whole world: to ensure the protection and security of the entire country. We demand an air defence system for Kharkiv, for Odesa and for other cities. We demand weapons today in sufficient quantities to defend ourselves against this neo-Hitler, against Putin.”
6. Various of people, including soldiers, holding banners
7. People holding banner marching toward cameras
STORYLINE:
Several hundred LGBTQ+ Ukrainian servicemen and their supporters marched in central Kyiv Sunday to demand more rights and highlight their service to their country in its war with Russia.
The servicemembers — many wearing rainbow and unicorn patches on their uniforms — called on the government to grant them official partnership rights.
They described the event as a pride march but it did not have the celebratory atmosphere of peacetime events and took place in the rain and under a heavy police guard amid threats from counterprotesters.
Among them was army veteran Dmytro, 32.
“I decided to join because I want to defend my rights. Just like I stood up for the state in my time. I want the state to defend my rights, my right to freedom, my right to protection, my right to love, my right to be myself,” Dmytro told The Associated Press.
The role of LGBTQ+ members in the military has been credited with shifting public attitudes toward same-sex partnerships in the socially conservative country.
Campaigners are seeking legal reforms to allow people in same-sex partnerships to take medical decisions for wounded soldiers and bury victims of the war that extended across Ukraine more than two years ago.
They argue that an improvement in LGBTQ+ rights would create a further distinction between Ukraine and Russia, where LGBTQ+ rights are severely restricted.
Staff from the U.S. Embassy and several European embassies attended the pride rally.
AP video by: Alex Babenko, Dmytro Zhyhinas, Derek Gatapoulos
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