Ukraine hosts largest ever gay pride parade

Ukraine hosts largest ever gay pride parade

KIEVKIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian political leaders as well as foreign diplomats signed up with thousands marching in a gay pride ceremony in Kiev on Sunday, the largest and most peaceful ever in the previous Soviet nation.

Crowds of people, many dressed in intense shades, paraded along roads in the facility of the Ukrainian resources, standing up banners saying \"Variety is beautiful\", \"Human rights = delighted country\", \"No violence - yes civil liberties!\".

They were flanked by a thick cordon of police in safety helmets however there was no sign of violence in spite of the presence of a couple of hundred protesters.

Sunday's march in Kiev became part of \"Satisfaction Month\" celebrated by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals around the globe.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a previous comic that took workplace last month, has advertised a forgiving society, claiming he means all people's equality and also flexibility.

\" Our desire is to share to a bulk of individuals that LGBT is normality,\" Eduard, a 17-year-old tattoo musician, informed Reuters.

\" I am participating for the fifth time. Ukraine is making substantial progression contrasted to previous years, safety and security and also company are much better.\"

Zelenskiy's workplace prompted the police to stop physical violence and also assure the safety and security of participants in the March of Equality.

\" Ukraine's Constitution states that people have equivalent constitutional rights as well as freedoms,\" it said in a blog post on its Facebook page on Sunday morning.

Ruslana Panukhnyk, among the organizers of the funding's annual gay satisfaction march, informed journalists after the occasion that concerning 8,000 people had attended it even more than 5,000 in 2014.

\" We are pleased with the cooperation with the cops. There were some small incidents, but no injuries,\" she stated.

Under Western-backed leadership, Ukraine's parliament passed regulation in 2015 to prohibit discrimination in the workplace as part of a series of laws Ukraine needed to pass to qualify for a visa-free travel contract with the European Union.

\" Thank you to the cops as well as other law enforcement agencies for safeguarding today's Satisfaction event in Kiev,\" Judith Gough, the British ambassador to Ukraine that signed up with the march, wrote in a tweet.

She posted photos of herself and various other Western ambassadors who joined the event.

William B. Taylor, cost d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, composed in a tweet: \"We stand with all Ukrainians striving for equality and non-discrimination\".

The government has boosted assistance for LGBT civil liberties given that a Western-backed management came to power in 2014, however doubters claim homophobic attitudes remain relatively extensive.

Practically 47% of Ukrainians assume that rights of sex-related minorities ought to be restricted while 37.5% are against restrictions, and also 15.6% do not have a point of view, according to a survey published by independent think-tank Autonomous Initiatives last December. It spoke with 1,998 individuals.

Sunday's march was a far cry from fierce clashes saw at the same event in 2015, but militants also made their voices listened to.

\" We are for God as well as Ukraine ... For us it is necessary that individuals, who have a sex-related wrong, do not make publicity out of it,\" Oksana Korchynska, a member of the resistance Radical Celebration which says it advertises family members values, told Reuters. She signed up with a couple of hundred militants at the occasion.

Cops detained 9 men on Saturday, who presumably were intending objections yet authorities said they had actually seen no reason to detain any person on Sunday.

In 2014 Kiev police detained 56 members of nationalist teams after scuffles before the march.

All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See right here for a full listing of exchanges and also hold-ups.