The biggest ever Gay Pride parade held in Ukraine

In the annual gay pride parade event, thousands, including Western diplomats have marched through the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The Gay Pride parade is marked as the largest ever gay pride that the country has seen.

A large police contingent and National Guard members were deployed by the government, for protection. The parade was also marked as the most peaceful gay pride parade in the country’s history till now. Despite a few small disputes, there occurred only nine arrests in the parade.

The participants in the parade dressed in colorful clothing, waved rainbow flags and held up banners reading “Diversity is beautiful” and “Human rights = happy country.”

Director of the NGO KyivPride, Ruslana Panukhnyk told the Agence France-Presse news agency, “We go out to show that there are a lot of us and we have a lot of support”.

This was the first march after the election of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy’s office, on Monday, urged the police to preserve the safety of protesters and pointed out that the country’s constitution guarantees equality and freedom.

Judith Gough, the British Ambassador to Ukraine wrote on his Twitter, “Thank you to the police and other law enforcement agencies for protecting today’s Pride event”.

Image courtesy: independent .co .uk, bbc .com / images are subject to copyright