Activist Spotlight: Olena Shevchenko, Insight

When Russia invaded Ukraine, those marginalised were the most at risk. LGBTQI organisations had to become humanitarian organisations overnight, providing support to the most vulnerable members of our community. One organisation that has been supporting the community in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is Insight, a feminist LGBTQI organisation in Ukraine. 

Olena Shevchenko, the chairperson of Insight, was recently named one of TIME’s Women of the Year for her work in protecting women and LGBTQI communities in war-torn Ukraine. Olena recently spoke to our supporters at a briefing event where she told us about the work her organisation has done over the past year to provide support to women and LGBTQI people, and what still needs to be done to ensure LGBTQI people in Ukraine are treated equally and with equity post-conflict.

My name is Olena Shevchenko and I'm a chairperson of Insight which is based in Ukraine and has been working since 2008. Before the war we mainly did human rights work to advance LGBTQI equality, including strategic litigation cases, legal support and also provided psychological support. We mostly concentrated our efforts on advocacy based work. 

I remember the first day of the full scale invasion thinking, is this the last day of our lives? So what can we do with that? I knew LGBTQI people needed us, needed our support.

We increased our team of volunteers from six people to 59, based in different regions of Ukraine, and worked out what the community needed from us, especially the most vulnerable. 

During the first eight or nine months of the war, we supported 7,899 LGBTQI people with relocation. This was important for those who tried to escape during the first year, because they were mostly lesbians or bisexual women, or couples with children because they tried to save those children from the war. We have three shelters which we built from nothing in the first week, so it's already been a year since they started to operate. 

One family had a very long journey, escaping from the Luhansk district together with their three year-old child. They came to our shelter and we then helped them to get to the border with Poland. They stayed there with a family we found, hoping to relocate to Germany, but unfortunately this failed. We supported them during their stay in Poland until they received visas to the UK.

They sent me photos of themselves in the UK, where they have found a house. They are happy, and safe. But they want to return to Ukraine when the war is over and have their family recognised at home here too. 

Another huge part of our work is humanitarian support. We cover everything, meals, baby food, different types of medicines, blankets, clothes for different people, including warm clothes for kids and adults. We also support elderly people and people with disabilities because our community is pretty diverse. We usually send 250 packages each day, so we are covering around 250 households.

Olena reflected on the need for support to and through the LGBTQI community - why it is important, and why LGBTQI people aren’t always well supported by the mainstream humanitarian response.

Sometimes the needs of our community are different. Look at hormone replacement medication, for example. They’re still the main challenge because from the start of the invasion, it was not possible to get them. We quickly started to receive thousands of requests for hormones from trans people. Nobody from the huge humanitarian missions provided a solution for how we could support them.

People in different countries from our community helped us much more than all those huge humanitarian missions. People just collected from everywhere in Europe and they brought it to the border with Ukraine and we managed to find a solution to get it from the Polish side of the border. We are still supporting people in this way, especially for those still in Ukraine because, unfortunately for many trans people, especially those who are assigned as male in their documents, it is still not possible to cross the border.

We asked Olena what her hopes were for the future of LGBTQI rights in a post-conflict Ukraine.

I mentioned the couple who fled to the UK with their child. I told you this story because it illustrates the dreams of most people who left Ukraine. They want to come back home to a safe country, which will give them full recognition and will not discriminate against them.Now they see how different it can be in other countries, with fair treatment and recognition from government institutions, from society, and it will be very hard to explain to people why their own government does not recognise them as citizens.

“So many people amongst those who left are from LGBTQI communities, and I think the main question they will be asking is why Ukraine won’t recognise the inequality, particularly equal marriage, which is forbidden here.”

I think it is a very important task for Ukraine as a country to do everything possible to give people the chance to go back home. So many people amongst those who left are from LGBTQI communities, and I think the main question they will be asking is why Ukraine won’t recognise the inequality, particularly equal marriage, which is forbidden here.

There was a petition to President Zelenskyy which said that Ukraine should adopt marriage equality. The President responded saying it is not possible during the war to change the Constitution, which would be required to legalise same-sex marriages. However, that wouldn’t be required for civil partnerships, but we are still waiting. 

Many people from LGBTQI communities are dying on the frontline and in the occupied territories, as soldiers and as civilians.Their relatives, their loved ones don't have any rights in the eyes of the law, including many families with children who don't have any custody rights.

I don't understand why it is so hard to support equality for LGBTQI people, when it is the best moment to do this. I believe social acceptance will come with changing these laws.

The people of Ukraine, including LGBTQI people, are fighting for freedom for all their citizens. This must include the freedom for LGBTQI people to be who they are, and be accepted as equal. It is the only way to recognise the bravery of incredible people who have gone to great lengths to support their fellow citizens like Olena, and those LGBTQI people who made the ultimate sacrifice in this conflict.

GiveOut will continue to support Olena, Insight and many other organisations across Ukraine to protect vulnerable LGBTQI people. If you’d like to help Olena and others continue to support those who need it most, please visit our appeal page and give generously.