MAY 20: Live Stream on Gender and LGBT+ in Ukraine
Live stream Saturday, May 20, 10:00 a.m. US Eastern Time (5:00 in Ukraine) on YouTube
Due to technical difficulties, the live stream on Gender and LGBT+ in Ukraine originally scheduled for May 13 has been rescheduled to Saturday, May 20.
Join us Saturday, May 20, at 10:00 a.m. US Eastern Time (5:00 p.m. in Lviv) as Refounding Democracy continues its 4-part series on Ukraine's new social covenant.
Part IV: Gender and LGBT+ in the Ukrainian Social Covenant
Social acceptance of sexual minorities has emerged as a stark line dividing progressive and conservative societies around the world. Russian leader Vladimir Putin regularly blasts Western nations for their relative openness towards sexual minorities, citing this sign of “decadence” as one of a shifting list of justifications for Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine.
In Ukraine, attitudes towards gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people have traditionally been largely hostile. But a dramatic shift may be underway. Gay pride parades in Kyiv used to attract only dozens of participants who required robust police protection against violence by conservative protesters. More recent events have grown to thousands of marchers. Gay Ukrainians serve openly in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, earning gratitude and helping to break down barriers to acceptance of the LGBT+ community.
The shift in attitudes towards gay people parallels dramatic changes underway in Ukraine as the nation organizes itself to defend its democracy. Refounding Democracy is pleased to welcome representatives of Ukraine’s LGBT+ community to help us understand these changes and what they mean.
LIVE FROM LVIV: A Refounding Democracy conversation
Ukraine's New Social Covenant: A 4-part series
Refounding Democracy is a sustained examination of the current authoritarian assault on liberal democracy in the US and around the world. We make sense of today’s events through the lenses of political philosophy, history, and economics. A central theme is the concept of a social covenant -- the compact, both secular and spiritual, that articulates the commitments members of a polity make to one another, and that thereby binds a nation together.
In a time of crisis, a nation's social covenant can evolve rapidly. Nowhere today shows this process unfolding more vividly than in Ukraine. As the Ukrainian people organize themselves to defend democracy and repel Russia's brutal invasion, a new nation is emerging.
Refounding Democracy is pleased to host a four-part series in which we examine this evolution. Streaming live from Ukraine, co-hosts Athena Small and Peter Lupu are joined by a range of Ukrainian voices to discuss what happening, what it means for Ukraine's future, and what lessons it implies for democracy in the U.S. and worldwide.
The series examines these changes from four directions:
April 22, Kyiv: Civil society & volunteerism in Ukraine
April 29, Kyiv: Culture - decolonizing the mindset, shifting to Ukrainian language
May 6, Kyiv: Ukraine’s education system
May 13, Lviv: 20: Sex, Gender, and LGBT in the Ukrainian Social Covenant
Host: Athena Small, Lecturer, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Virginia, USA
Co-host: Peter Lupu, Chair, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Glendale Community College, Glendale, Arizona, USA