Urgent fund established to help LGBTQ+ people in Ukraine

A critical new fundraiser has been set up to support the LGBTQ+ community in Ukraine and they need your help..

News . Written by Han Tiernan.

OutRight launch vital new Ukraine LGBTQ+ fund. The photograph is of a night time demonstration with people wearing blue and yellow in support of Ukraine/ the two people in the centre have the words 'No War' painted on their faces and are carrying a placard which reads
Image: @TbilisiPride

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country’s LGBTQ+ community has become one of the most vulnerable populations, facing severe sanctions including imprisonment in camps with some reporting the use of “lethal measures”.
With many from the LGBTQ+ community trying to flee from Kyiv and other major cities, the LGBTQ+ rights charity OutRight Action International has launched a vital fundraising campaign to fund groups in Ukraine to provide shelter & support to aid those displaced. 

As the organisation point out “In times of crisis #LGBTIQ people face higher risks.” Already there have been reports of Russian intelligence compiling dossiers on members of Ukraine’s LGBTQ+ community.

In a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ambassador Bathsheba Nell Crocker, the US representative to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organisations in Geneva, reports “that human rights violations and abuses in the aftermath of a further invasion are being planned.”

She adds, “Specifically, we have credible information that indicates Russian forces are creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation.”

In the letter, she goes on to report that she suspects that Russia would “likely target those who oppose Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons.”

Since the OutRight fund was established last Thursday, it has already raised over $100K, however, with escalating violence and the increasing aggression from Russia, it has increased its target to $150k.

The organisation works with local grassroots organisations to deliver immediate assistance and assures that “100% of gifts will help local partners in Ukraine & surrounding countries who are supporting queer & trans people impacted by these attacks.”

To donate to the fund and support the LGBTQ+ community in Ukraine go to https://outrightinternational.org/ukraine.

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