Webinar: Queers, War and Ukraine
June 20, 2026: 9 am Vancouver, 10 am Edmonton, noon Toronto, 5 pm London, 7 pm Kyiv
Ukraine was the first post-Soviet country to decriminalize homosexuality, in 1991. Its fight against Russia is also a fight against returning to LGBTQ+ criminalization. In honour of Pride Month, join us for a conversation with Ukraine queer feminist organizer &Time Woman of Year honouree Olena Shevchenko, with scholars and activists Mariia Burtseva and Thomas Cline-Fedorus.
How has war brought greater visibility to queer issues while also accelerating tensions with the far right? What are the proposed changes to the Civil Code of Ukraine (Bill 15150) and what will be its impact on queer communities? Four years into the full scale invasion, what is the situation for queer/feminist communities in Ukraine?
Register for this webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/X1cSOLKXTFSadAcfb0DyyA
Olena Shevchenko is aUkrainian women’s and LGBTI+ rights activist. Founder of Insight, for which she received the International Prize of the City of Paris for the Rights of LGBTI+ people. Advocate for the inclusion of LGBTI+ concerns in feminist platforms. Co-chair of LGBTI+ Council of Ukraine and elected to the board of the International IGLYO organization. Time Women of the Year honouree 2026.
Thomas Cline-Fedorus holds a master’s degree in European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, with a concentration on the European Union. His master’s thesis examines the incentives behind the introduction of Draft Bill 9103, or the legalization of same-sex civil partnerships in Ukraine. His field of research also spans defence and security in Europe.
Mariia Burtseva is a PhD candidate in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta and a Graduate Research Assistant at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (Edmonton, AB). Her research focuses on Ukrainian LGBTQI+ migration in Canada. Her interests include Ukrainian and Ukrainian Canadian Studies, Queer Studies, Oral History, and Migration Studies.
Building Solidarity between Struggles
Rita Adel was raised in Ukraine to a Ukrainian mother and a Palestinian father. She later moved to Jordan, where she is based now. In recent years, Rita has been working to build solidarities and foster meaningful connections and mutual understanding between her two homelands. Rita has a master’s degree in Development Studies, and she is also a researcher working in the humanitarian field.
Frieda Afary, Philosophy M.A., M.L.I.S., is an Iranian American public librarian, translator, writer, activist in Los Angeles. She is the author of Socialist Feminism: A New Approach (Pluto Press, 2022) and produces the blogs, Iranian Progressives in Translation and socialistfeminism.org She has collaborated with Ukrainian filmmaker, Alla Solod and the Ukrainian Feminist Workshop in Lviv to produce the film, Solidarity with Ukraine: A Feminist Perspective (2024).
Oksana Briukhovetska is an artist, curator and researcher from Kyiv, Ukraine. Her interests include feminism, war trauma, race and racialisation, transnational connections, storytelling and craft of textile. Her MFA degree is from the University of Michigan, and she participates in art exhibitions internationally. She is an author of the book “Black Lives Matter Voices” (Choven, 2025) based on her interviews with Americans across the US in 2020-2021. She writes on contemporary art and curated several feminist projects in Ukraine, including editing of the collection of wartime art projects by Ukrainian women artists “Meaning after Loss” (2025) and co-curating the Ukrainian chapter for Secondary Archive, platform for women artists from Eastern and Central Europe. She is a recipient of The Igor Zabel Award Grant for Culture and Theory in 2022.
We sent a survey about Ukraine to all 5 NDP leadership candidates. 4 responded. Here are their positions on support for Ukraine:
Fundraiser: Support Ukrainian Firefighters and Rescue Workers:
https://chuffed.org/project/150370-support-firefighters-and-rescue-workers-in-ukraine
Webinars:
USA-Ukraine Mineral Deal: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? with Maryna Larina
Why the Left Should Support Ukraine NOW: with David Camfield and Cheryl Zuur
Three Years of War: Where are We Now with Maria Popova and Dominique Arel
Environmental Consequences of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the need for Green and Sustainable Reconstruction
Link to declaration: https://emanzipation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_06_11_Ukraine_peace_conference_letter_declaration_endorsements.pdf
Ukraine Solidarity Information 