Out Ukrainian Soldiers Don Unicorn Patch on Uniforms

02.06.2022 - 21:23 / metroweekly.com

Ukrainian soldiers are wearing their pride on their chest with a unicorn patch as an act of defiance against Russia and the country’s attempted erasure of LGBTQ+ people.Out LGBTQ soldiers currently fighting for Ukraine’s sovereignty from Russia have been donning unicorn patches to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Russia as a whole, that they won’t be silenced. Back in 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. During that invasion, there was an overwhelming push by the Russian military to remove anyone from its ranks who identified as a part of the LGBTQ community.The Crimean Peninsula has historically been one of the few safe spots in Eastern Europe to be LGBTQ.

But advocates worry that if Russia is successful in its most recent invasion, anti-LGBTQ laws will be imposed in the seized territories.Same-sex marriage is banned in Russia, and the country adopted a law in 2013 banning so-called “gay propaganda” — defined as any information that presents homosexuality as a normal occurrence in nature, or presents LGBTQ relationships or identity in a positive or even neutral light. The law applies to all ages, though proponents claim they adopted it in order to “protect minors” from being exposed to such information. Russia’s government has also failed to take action to stop human rights violations in Chechnya, an autonomous Muslim-majority region within the country where LGBTQ people, primarily gay and bisexual men, have been arrested and detained against their will, tortured, and in some cases, even killed.As Ukrainian soldiers fight back against the Russian incursion, the Ukrainian army has given out unicorn patches to LGBTQ soldiers as a symbol of solidarity with the community.