At Pride, the environment was great because there were so many of our people who came to assert their voices. From the outside, you could see the real situation when [counter]protesters showed up, church people, and angry young guys. But it was really cool that we could walk through the city center and show that we are a visible part, we exist, and we need our rights. That’s really motivating. Although the number of homophobes and the aggressive homophobia around that was a little scary. Not scary because of what might happen to me — I knew there were police and it was all under control — but scary because this is our real society. I remember a really funny moment: I was wearing contact lenses, plus I had just come from a night of partying, so I was in a bit of a shaky state. I step out in my great outfit, I see protest signs behind me. I thought they were in support of Pride! And then a photographer [shows up], and I start posing. Later, the photos come in. And I realize I had posed and smiled in front of signs that said, “God, Ukraine, Family,” “Mom, Dad, Child — a Healthy Family.” And I was pointing at them and smiling because I honestly thought they were LGBT-supportive posters. The next year [2019], I was also [supposed to be] on a platform [at KyivPride], but unfortunately, there was no platform that time because our driver started receiving threats from the far-right. They said they would find his family, find his car, burn it, beat him up. And he just drove off. So yeah, we were [walking] in heels at +30 [degrees Celsius], but I didn’t care. At Pride, you feel the power! You feel this unity, this community. You see more and more people coming every year. Fewer and fewer people are afraid. More and more people are starting to show that they’re here. And the main theme of Pride is rights. We don’t yet have the “Oh, it’s a party!” context. That may be the case where people already have those rights, and they’re just celebrating that they won them. In most countries, Prides are a general celebration for everyone. It’s not only for members of the LGBTQI+ community. It’s a celebration for everyone! Where you can come, where there’s a segment for adults, a segment for kids. Because our community is open to everyone. What’s the point of the queer community, the LGBTQI+ community, anyway? It’s a community about rights, about equal rights for everyone. Our community has faced so much oppression that it knows what it’s like when you’re stripped of the basics. It doesn’t matter who you are — a woman, a man, or a green elephant. You’re a human. First and foremost, you’re a human being and you deserve respect.
I went to the Maidan, we went as a group. Not the whole group — the institute [university] had forbidden it. They said those who went to the Maidan would be expelled, punished. But we went anyway. I remember how the singer Ruslana [Lyzhychko] came to our university. The university shut the gates. And she climbed over the gates, called people to join, and we went. We gathered a big crowd and came [to Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square)]. And then the university administration couldn’t do anything to us, because there were just too many of us. Even though the university leadership had been ordered to keep [students inside the buildings and dorms]. I remember standing there, jumping. It was so cool, realizing that something was changing. So many people came, so many were fed up with what was happening here. And then, I remember, when all of this... All those crazy things began... I wasn’t physically there anymore, but it was just... When you gather with your closest people, monitor the shootings, the deaths. And you see how people are ready to go, to rip it all down, to kill this government with their bare hands. And you realize how vile the government is. How much those people are against you.
Our very first trips were in the early days after the de-occupation of the Kyiv region [the de-occupation of the Kyiv region was officially announced on April 2, 2022]. Since we were in contact with the TDF [Territorial Defense Forces, a branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine], we were part of the TDF, they allowed us, accompanied by the military, to go to places where volunteer organizations or independent volunteers weren’t allowed — they were let in a week or two later, after demining. We were taken then by our military escort. And you’re just riding and thinking, “Okay, have they finished demining here or not, will I make it or will it blow?” Or when your van is fully loaded with food, the bridges are destroyed, and you’re being lowered and lifted by a tractor, you think, “Am I going to flip over or not?” And when you see people telling you… What struck me the most in the Kyiv region — people who collected rainwater, who had nothing to eat, who shared tiny pieces of bread between each other. When I saw the eyes of those people… I’d never seen eyes like that in my life... That became my motivation to keep going.
We are going to write a project [proposal] about victims of sexual violence during the war, with a focus on gender equality. At first, we wanted to focus on women [who were targets of sexual violence by Russian soldiers during the occupation], but I spoke with people from the prosecutor’s office — they sent me fresh statistics: a very large number of men were affected, and all our social programs are aimed exclusively at women. And one of the instruments [of torture] used by Russians (even saying that word feels disgusting), is also considered a method of sexual violence during war — they tortured men: locked them up and beat their genitals with electric shocks for days, weeks. This is also considered genocide [because it affects reproductive health]. <…> We’ve discussed Bucha and Irpin a lot, but did you know that right now the [figures] for the Kherson region are higher than those for Bucha and Irpin? And we don’t know about this because the topic has drifted into the background. That’s something I care deeply about bringing up as a person. Especially in the context of what’s happening with the topic of rape in Ukrainian society: those young guys who publicly filmed girls being raped, the girl in Zakarpattia, another girl who said that her mother and stepfather were raping her from the age of seven.
Vladyslav Shast is an LGBTQI+ activist, volunteer, and director of the Obiymy (Hugs) charitable foundation. He was born on July 9, 1995, in the urban-type settlement of Kompaniivka, Kirovohrad region. After finishing school, he moved to Kyiv and enrolled at the Bogomolets National Medical University. He was among the medical students who managed to break through to the Euromaidan participants during the student strike in late November 2013, despite the university administration’s obstruction. In 2013, Vladyslav began performing in gay nightclubs as a drag queen. Realizing he didn’t want to become a doctor, he left medical school and entered the Institute of Journalism at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, though he did not complete his studies. In 2016, he appeared at Kyiv Fashion Week events as a drag queen — his first appearance in a flamboyant outfit outside gay clubs. In 2018 and 2019, he participated in the Equality March in Kyiv, also known as KyivPride. In 2018, he began practicing meditation and overcame alcohol and drug addiction. In the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion, he and his mother started assisting a Territorial Defence unit in Kyiv by collecting funds and purchasing food, medicine, gear, and other supplies. Following the de-occupation of the Kyiv region, he was among the first to deliver volunteer aid there. In the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion, he and his mother started assisting a Kyiv Territorial Defense unit — collecting funds and purchasing food, medicine, gear, and other supplies. Following the de-occupation of the Kyiv region, he was among the first to deliver volunteer aid there. In May 2022, he founded the Obiymy charitable organization. Together with the foundation’s volunteer team, he delivered aid to soldiers in the Donetsk region, helped residents of Mykolaiv and de-occupied Kherson, and found donors to fund the repairs of the blood transfusion department at the National Cancer Institute.
