For the very first time a gay pride march has happened in Kiev in the Ukraine but not before, a court ruled to cancel the march amidst security concerns. However, police stepped in at the last minute to offer protection to those marching so the march went on and Kiev police arrested 13 people for trying to disrupt it.
The assistance and support provided by authorities in Ukraine is in stark contrast to the hard-line anti-gay actions taken by their counterparts in Russia and is not lost on the pro-gay activists in Ukraine who are not underestimating the significance of today’s march:
“‘This event will go down in the history of Ukraine as one of the key developments in the fight for equal human rights,’ said Olena Semenova, one of the organizers, expressing gratitude to the police and the authorities for their action.”