UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Sep 1 — KharkivPride 2025, an education and charity festival advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, began in Kharkiv on Aug 30.
KharkivPride is an annual human rights festival in support of the rights of LGBTQ+ community. This year, its slogan is “Together, towards equality and victory.”
The festival also helps raise money for an anti-tank missile complex for the 46th aeromobile brigade of Ukraine.
At the opening of the festival, a group of people from right-wing, nationalist, and сhristian organizations tried to disrupt the event.
Police, which, according to organizers, were in larger numbers than last year, blocked an entrance to the PrideHub, a community space where the KharkivPride was held.
A right-wing group demanded to shut the festival down and accused the organizers of “spreading their propaganda.” A few hours later, after conversing with Anna Sharyhina, pride activist and KharkivPride co-organizer, they left.
Anna Sharyhina told Gwara’s journalists that fewer people than they expected came to Kharkiv Pride, probably because police blocked the street to protect the participants.
Earlier, Kharkiv Pride organizers reported that they were warned that a group of “representatives of ultra-right organizations” might come to the festival from Kyiv to disrupt it.
The program of this year’s festival includes educational events on LGBTQ+ rights, discrimination, and living during Russia’s war on Aug 30 and Aug 31, remembrance day of fallen queer soldiers on Sep 5, and Pride car rally on Sep 6.
This August, Gwara celebrated its 10th anniversary. Whatever awaits Ukraine in Russia’s war, our Kharkiv-based newsroom plans to keep reporting on it. Please, support our journalism by buying us a coffee or subscribing to our Patreon.
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