The video by Sashko Drugli, posted in May 2024, aims to prove that homophobia in Ukraine is a consequence of Russian colonial policies. The author suggests that homophobia has nothing to do with Ukrainian traditions and calls it a “Russian colonial import.” He does that by explaining how Russian homophobic readings of Christian writings enforced by the Russian Orthodox Church are likely to be the reason for Ukrainian Christian-based homophobia. He then brings forward an interpretation of forced celibacy in Zaporozhian Sich as an equal treatment of both homosexual and heterosexual relations. Sashko Drugli proposes that homophobia in Ukraine developed after the Russian empire defeated Zaporizhian Sich and criminalized “sodomy, which he compares to the British colonial rule that has allegedly wiped out gay traditions of the local population. He then states that “queers should now be given rights to have a family” since “Ukraine has made its civilization choice.” It implies that the author believes that there is a direct connection between (neoliberal) human rights and, as he puts it, “civilization.” Sashko Drugli clearly distances himself from other “civilizations” and, consequently, from LGBT people who either made a “wrong civilization choice” or did not even have a chance to make one.
Sashko Drugli is a “decent and correct” or respectable citizen, as George L. Mosse would put it (Mousse 1985; 1-22), and thus deserves to be granted the rights. George L. Mosse (1985; 1-22) has pointed out that nationalism usually reinforces the image of a nation as a familial unit to ensure the continuity of the nation through reproduction, thus making nationalism heterosexual by definition. Yet, thanks to the legalization of homosexual marriage in the West, L, G, B, and T communities have been on the way to its normalization and broader acceptance. LGBT community had to be incorporated into national ideologies, hence state-driven homonationalism emerged. The term homonationalism was originally coined by Jasib Puar to signify “a facet of modernity and a historical shift marked by the entrance of (some) homosexual bodies as worthy of protection by nation-states” (2013; 337). Jasib Paur (2007; 1-10) points out that granting the rights to some homosexuals and creating normative gayness is backed by creating the discourse of “US sexual exceptionalism,” which claims white Americans’ sexualities to be modern and progressive, while non-white populations being ‘backward’ and “uncivilized”, thus not worthy of rights. There has been an academic debate on whether the concept of homonationalism can be applied to other, non-Western contexts, where LGBT community has neither state support nor the history of colonizing other nations. Some Ukrainian scholars (Leksikov & Rachok 2020) have questioned the applicability of the term homonationalism for non-Western contexts as it might primitivize local experience and silence the ongoing colonial processes. Instead, they offer to use such notions as sexual citizenship and homoliberalism. While acknowledging the critique, the othering aspect of the “gay normalization” cannot be overlooked.
The term “homonationalism” is being used by some scholars to analyze LGBT activism in Eastern Europe (Martsenyuk 2016; Pagulich 2016; Plakhotnik & Mayerchyk 2023). For example, Martsenyuk (2016; 66), in her research on LGBT community participation in Euromaidan, uses the notion of homonationalism to explain how “juxtaposition of two potential political vectors—pro-European and pro-Russian—encourages attempts to create a “correct” gay identity.” Similarly, homonationalism has good explanatory potential for the case of Sashko Drugli’s video material as it reflects a strive for progressivist modernity through joining the EU. This is achieved by creating the Other, representing all ‘civilizations’ that lack gay rights or fail to advocate strongly enough for them.
Despite the discrimination LGBT community still endure daily, a way for the community to be integrated into the nation had to be engineered. Sashko Drugli adds: “Today, LGBT community representatives are defending Ukraine and gaining Ukrainian’s rights to be accepted and free.” The active participation of Ukrainian gay people in the army further facilitates the development of an LGBT-inclusive nationalist discourse. He concludes: “If you see homophobic comments online, they are likely to have been posted by Russian bots.” Thus, on top of the creation of the ‘right’ nationalism, homonationalist discourse silences the violence that LGBT people face from their fellow nationalists.
The case of Ukraine raises the question of whether homonationalism can exist outside the “progressive” West. While it is evident that homonationalism does not manifest itself the same way as it does in countries where gay rights have state support, this does not mean that the phenomenon is entirely absent in non-Western contexts. The concept of homonationalism may indeed be a relevant concept in other non-Western communities. However, in such cases, it is more productive to focus on the LGBT movement itself rather than state policies, as the movement may be generating a discourse that integrates LGBT identities into the broader national narrative by creating the (racialized) Other.
[1] The author refers to the Revolution of Dignity (also known as Euromaidan) 2013-2014, which, among other things, has resulted in the signing of European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement and distancing from Russia.
Literature:
- Mosse, G. L. (1985). Nationalism and Sexuality: Middle-Class Morality and Sexual Norms in Modern Europe. The University Of Wisconsin Press.
- Martsenyuk, T. (2016). Sexuality and Revolution in Post-Soviet Ukraine: LGBT Rights and the Euromaidan Protests of 2013-2014. https://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/items/29444b87-8890-496d-b877-d788606ed309
- Pagulich, L. (2016). Chy mozhlyvo kviryty natsiyu: intersectsiynist’ i kvir-polityky. Politychna Krytyka. https://politkrytyka.org/2016/07/11/chi-mozhlivo-kviriti-natsiyu-intersektsijnist-i-kvir-politiki/
- Puar, J. (2007). Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
- Puar, J. (2013). Rethinking Homonationalism. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 45(2), 336–339. https://doi.org/10.1017/s002074381300007x
- Leksikov, R., & Rachok, D. (2020). Beyond Western Theories: On the Use and Abuse of “Homonationalism” in Eastern Europe. In R. Buyantueva & M. Shevtsova (Eds.), LGBTQ+ Activism in Central and Eastern Europe (pp. 25–52). Palgrave Macmillian. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20401-3
- Plakhotnik, O., & Mayerchyk , M. (2023). Pride Contested: Geopolitics of Liberation at the Buffer Periphery of Europe. Lambda Nordica, 28(2-3), 25-53. https://doi.org/10.34041/ln.v.874
Author of the reflection: Mariia Dubykivska, IUFU Student
Reviewing and editing: Denys Tereshchenko
Source: Drahli. “Kolonialna istoriia homofobii v Ukraini” [Colonial history of homophobia in Ukraine]. YouTube, May 17, 2024.
