Kyiv Post Zoryan Kis (left) and Tymur Levchuk (right)
They are a pair of activists fighting for equal rights for all same-sex couples in the country.
18 April 2016
Nigel Tan
GayStarNews.com
LGBT rights activists Zoryan Kis and Tymur Levchuk are the first gay couple to tie the knot in Ukraine.
On 9 April, Kis and Levchuk held a wedding ceremony in the presence of their close friends and family in Kyiv.
Even though Urkaine doesn’t allow legal marriage for same-sex couples, that did not stop Kis from proposing to Levchuk about a year ago.
‘It was a romantic evening,’ Kis told Kyiv Post. ‘I felt like we are alone in the world, so I proposed to Tymur, and he said yes.’
The pair met more than four years ago at a LGBT rights discussion in Kyiv. They were drawn to each other as they were the only ones who spoke Ukrainian. Then, they started talking to each other on Facebook for about six months.
‘One day Tymur wrote to me that during preparations for yet another protest, he discovered that all of his markers were broken, so he couldn’t draw a protest placard. So I decided to buy a big box of markers for him as a present,’ Kis said.
‘Later we discovered that not a single marker worked. But the gesture was still charming,’ Levchuk added.
The couple remarked that they were lucky to be living in Kyiv, a big city where ‘no one knows about your sexuality, and no one actually cares.’ Their circle of friends includes other activists and artists whom they seek support for their relationship from.
But when it comes to the parents, Kis shared that his mother had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he’s gay.
‘In fact, she also has to “come out,” as I did,’ Kis described. ‘And she was really afraid that as soon as she did that, people could stop speaking to her, in shops and in the streets.’
Kis’ family was from Lviv, a rather conservative and old-fashioned city. His father was less shocked with the revelation as he had suspected that he’s gay for a few years:
‘He blames himself for my sexuality. His friend told him about me being gay when I was a teenager. He said: “You should pay more attention to your son, because he will become gay.”‘
As for Levchuk, his situation is slightly better as all his relatives know about his sexual orientation, though they avoid talking about it.
‘They don’t talk about it, but always ask me to say “hello” to Zoryan,’ said Levchuk.
The couple expressed that they believe that same-sex marriage would come to Ukraine one day, and that’s when they would go register themselves officially.
In 2015, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, approved civil partnership for same-sex couples. Even though the new partnership amendment doesn’t oblige the Ukrainian authorities to legalise same-sex marriages in the country in the near future, it is still a big step towards equality.
Kis, who works with international human rights organization, Freedom House, was one of the activists who lobbied for the civil partnership amendment. He shared that the new law would help to protect the rights of people in relationships who can’t marry legally.
‘I did it so that we could tie the knot,’ said Kis.
Homophobia is still a huge issue in Ukraine. Last month, a LGBTI rights forum in Lviv was shut down by a group of ultra-nationalists who threw rocks and fireworks. The pride parades for2014 and 2015 were also cancelled due to the fear of homophobic attacks.
Human Rights Ombudswoman Valeria Lutkovska commented that Ukrainians are not quite ready to recognise equal rights for all citizen yet. However, Levchuk and Kis believe that the majority of Ukrainian society is not homophobic.
Levchuk, who works for the country’s biggest LGBT organization, Tochka Opory (Fulcrum), explained that anti-gay violence only comes from a small group of people, and them acting out could possibly create more backlash against themselves:
‘Aggression and intolerance are the choice of a small, but active group of people. This will sound strange, but their violence against us works in our favour.
‘The public doesn’t like LGBT people, but they usually hate violence more. So we find more and more supporters after these attacks.’
Though, Levchuk also shared that his fellow activists have started to give self-defense training sessions for the LGBT community:
‘We don’t teach them to attack first, but how to counter aggression and be prepared for it in future.’
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"Fear Eats the Soul"
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