Oh god. What a great report on a brave, brave day for those Ukrainians. Thanks for covering their struggle.

Ex-Soviet provinces and satellites are famously backwards and wrongheaded on matters of treatment of minorities of almost any variety.

There are articles written on the subject, but I at least don't remember any conclusive reasons as to why.

I'm so humbled by these sorts of stories of courage. GLBT people putting their bodies on the line for freedom.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...humanity! Isn't it wonderful?

*jeers, tomatoes, raspberries, etc.

@2 - what is interesting is that in a lot of the old Warsaw Pact countries, legislation has been leading public opinion and public opinion is following. In all EU countries, including Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, it is illegal to discriminate on the grounds of sexuality in employment matters. That is better than 29 states. In Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria all discrimination is unlawful. Expect to see gay marriage in at least 4 former Soviet/Warsaw Pact countries before it is recognised at the federal level in the US.

Sadly, none of that applies to either Russia or Ukraine, the 2 most populous countries in Eastern Europe. I lived briefly in Ukraine and the casual bigotry directed at anyone who wasn't a straight Slavic superman was sickening.

Thank you so much for doing this. The bravery required of the organizers, marchers and sympathetic reporters such as yourself is awe-inspiring. I'm going to forward this piece to my Canadian Member of Parliament and demand to know just what Canada can do to help put pressure on the Ukrainian authorities.

Great report, live from the ground. This is shocking thuggery. These kinds of thugs aren't always real picky about who they bash on; I wonder if the Euros are going to get ugly.

@5 - Correcting myself - in Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria the anti-discrimination laws include areas such as employment, provision of goods and services, housing and education but sadly not marriage or adoption (though single gay people can adopt in Bulgaria).

@7 - Donetsk is probably the best place for England to play as it is very difficult to get to, there are no hotel rooms, and it isn't as openly backwards as some other Ukrainian cities.

The tournament I think - hope - might pass without too much physical violence because it'd be a big deal for tourism, especially in Ukraine. I think they'll find a few battalions of paramilitary police to keep the local neo-fascists in order.

But there will definitely, without a doubt, be some sickening racist abuse of non-white players.

This only has nine comments? That almost makes me angrier than the actual content in the post. Maybe people have nothing to add. I have a hard time finding anything pithy and any valued commentary to add. But, comments are revenue and this writing should be encouraged.

Of course, this should also be a full article. But, withstanding that, this is one piece of importance regarding the state of gay around the world.

And, a final statement to say it reminds me of the doc that won awards at the SGLFF, Beyond Gay. Which makes me grateful for the work done here in the past to push us ahead of some of the foreign countries.

We (Sweden) had two ministers who was supposed to walk in the parade, about ten people from the LGBT-community here who was also on site for Pride.

At the moment they are talking about a blockade on Ukraine during the European Football Championships (Ukraine is hosting) and the minister (who's one of our representatives in the EU) is kicking up a little storm about this.

The biggest problem in a large part of the former eastern block is poverty. With the economic collapse this is even worse and reactionary conservative groups like the "cossacks" gain more and more ground and they are supported by the most conservative parts of the orthodoxy.

Also a still from the beating [ http://www.qx.se/uploads/f9/4f04d1cd30dd… ], the guy their jumping on is Svyatoslav Sheremet the leader for "Gay Forum of Ukraine"

Thank you for the story.

I'm currently living in Belgrade, Serbia.

The situation in Serbia is arguably way worse than this when it comes to gay parades. In Serbia, in 2001, there was a first attempt at a gay parade, and it ended much like this. In 2009, they tried to have one, and hooligans, days before the parade, started randomly attacking foreigners, killing on in the centre of the city, sending a message to the authorities that they are in control when it comes to this. Authorities capitulated and cancelled the parade.

In 2010, there was the one and only successful parade. 500 marchers walked one block in what was probably the world's most muted gay parade ever. FIVE THOUSAND police were required to reign in SIX THOUSAND protesters who came to kill. There was a massive roit and many (mostly police officers) were hospitalized.

In 2011, gay parade was cancelled, because the authorities just couldn't stomach it, so they gave in to the thugs.

So, I'm tempted to say it's way worse in Serbia but, in a way, it's not, because at least once there was a huge force mobilized to protect the parade.

You can still see "death to faggots" and "we're waiting for you" spraypainted on almost every wall from the last gay parade and the last attempted one.

Terrible stuff, no matter how you look at it.

Here's a video from 2010 from just one part of the city of people rampaging. They're shouting in unison "kill the fag(s)"

http://vimeo.com/15710887

Great reminder how many other countries have a long way to go. And makes our Pride in Seattle look like nothing more than a huge advertisement for big corporations.

If Pridefest was to be taken seriously it would find a way to fly those marchers in Ukraine to an all expense paid trip to our pride next month. But I suppose that would be up to the corporate sponsors.

"And makes our Pride in Seattle look like nothing more than a huge advertisement for big corporations."

IMO, that's a wonderful thing when "gay" is simply another consumer-demographic. How wonderful it would be in Serbia if it were beer and other companies, as opposed to rampaging thugs, tripping over themselves to show up at the gay parade.

@11 That photo is incredible and awful to behold.
What a world-a man trying to hold his head up while others would see him dead for it.

@10, you're right. These stories should be much bigger than they are. What sort of bridges are we building with their community?

@13, I'd chip in for that.

It's nice to know that Arizona's infamy has has emigrated so much farther than the Mexicans they're trying to keep out.

@16

me too.

This is humbling and inspiring.

Thank you for the report.