LGBTIQ Ukraine Emergency Fund

LGBTIQ people are often left behind in humanitarian relief efforts. At best this may be to a lack of cultural competency, and at worst, LGBTIQ people may be intentionally excluded from aid because of systemic discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. Put bluntly, in a large-scale emergency, our LGBTIQ communities simply cannot always count on mainstream systems for help. Yet, in crisis, LGBTIQ people too have a basic right to survival, and require food, water, transportation, safe shelter, access to social support, competent medical care, and access to hormone replacement therapy and HIV medication.

As soon as the Russian war on Ukraine began, Outright’s partner organizations in Ukraine and surrounding countries reached out to us for support. As the invasion worsened, displaced LGBTIQ people began fleeing Kyiv and the eastern part of the country, forced to migrate to rural areas and to the West - including to other EU countries. According to UNHCR, there are an estimated 5.5 million internally displaced people in Ukraine; 8 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded in neighboring countries and across Europe; and approximately 17.6 million people in Ukraine are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023.

Many who have stayed in Ukraine have been forced to shelter in basements with little or no access to running water, power, heating, medical care, or mobile phone service. Outright has documented specific challenges facing people with male documents between the ages of 18 to 60 who are not permitted to leave the country — including trans and nonbinary people — because of Ukraine’s conscription policies. The situation has become increasingly challenging as the military significantly intensified its efforts.

LGBTIQ organizations in Ukraine and surrounding countries continue to require immediate and sustained financial support to meet the needs of LGBTIQ people turning to them for life-saving help as a result of Russia’s war. 

Activists across the region are additionally concerned about protecting the lives and rights of LGBTIQ people, since Russia has a long track record of targeting and persecuting human rights defenders and of state-sponsored homo- and transphobia. In addition, many neighboring countries where refugees from Ukraine are fleeing have seen rising hate toward LGBTIQ people and opposition to advancing rights. LGBTIQ activists report that they fear a growing backlash through Eastern Europe and in Russia that could lead to further backsliding on rights, and threaten the very existence of the LGBTIQ movement in the region.

In these articles, you can learn more about the growing crisis for LGBTIQ people in and fleeing Ukraine and how activists are responding:  Openly, Them, openDemocracy, Time, and Teen Vogue and Rolling Stone.