One of the most important conditions for changing attitudes of socium towards LGBT people is the visibility of the community. For the average citizen of Ukraine these unknown 10 percent of the country population, who identify themselves as the members of the LGBT community, continue to remain an abstraction. Until there is a particular person who openly declared about it – a friend, a relative, a neighbor or a co-worker.
Gay Alliance Ukraine decided to launch visibility campaign entitled “We exist”.
Coming out is a difficult issue connected with a number of risks, but often coming out of the underground is being rewarded. First of all a coming out – it is an opportunity to gain freedom and inner peace, to feel like a full-fledged member of society, rather than a second-class person.
Under our initiative we would be publishing stories of people, for which coming out was the turning point in their lives, or stories of those who have only recently felt readiness to take this step. We already have a number of those people willing not only to tell their stories sharing memories from the past, but also to make the public coming out of closet with the help of our website.
It is important for us to collect as many such stories as possible. Therefore, we invite everyone who has something to say to send their texts at the e-mail info@upogau.org. We would be very grateful if your story is illustrated with your photo.
Submitted stories will be published in the corresponding section of our website. The firs story is already there. We are looking forward to the regular updates of this section on the average twice a week.
Coming out initiative “We exist” is being implemented under the information campaign “Free because informed” with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine. For more info about the campaign, as well as relevant information and news in the field of human rights, please visit the website tolerance.in.ua.
Автор: Gay Alliance Ukraine
