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Ukrainian Gay Life Nowadays Discussing the life of gay people in our country you should realize that it doesn't look any similar to the gay life style in Eastern European country, except FSU of course. The art of living people used to follow here came originally from the Soviet time and the traditions are changing very slowly. Majority of Ukrainians still have Communist brain and do not wish to accept any innovations. The Ukrainian society still is extremely conservative and homophobic. So don't build any illusions about ten years of Ukrainian independence and proclaimed intentions of Ukraine to join the European Union. Describing the Ukrainian gay issues we should emphasize that the Coming Out still is impossible and absolutely unrealistic here, homosexuality still is considered as shameful and undesirable attitude, so majority of Ukrainian gay men tries to withhold this aspect of their lives. Actually, it is traditional for all Ukrainians to keep their private life in secret. Since Soviet time our people associate private life with sexuality and feel big shame just thinking that their privacy could be exposed. In this sence the straight Ukrainian men have also many limits in their life. Such traditionalistic society as Ukrainian one prohibits any tolerance of human sexaulity. For instanse Ukraine has the dragon's anti-pornographic law in domestic Penal Code. According it any person could be imprisoned for 10 (ten) years for spreading of pornographic materials. And in this country keeping the copy of Playgirl magazine could easily mean "spreading of pornography" already. Any kind of sexual services (including escort) are illegal and you should know it before you arrive Ukraine. Making love with more than one partner at the same time could also lead you in jail according Ukrainian Penal Code. That's why even the straight Ukrainians having positive attitude of society in general must act very cautious with their sexuality.
Perhaps it could be found in Ukrainian artistic circles only - among fashion designers, top-models, pop-stars, etc. that some of gay people can afford to come out: the only famous gay person in Ukraine is the former TV-star Konstantin Hnatenko (photo), also well-known as poet and singer. Though, understandably, rumors and even quite trustworthy information about the homosexual orientation of several domestic stars circulate aplenty - still not a single politician nor businessman has so far dared to come out. Very special situation with gay issues has been performed by Ukrainian television. The American movies with gay incidental characters are often to watch on private tv-chanels like 1+1, InterChanel, ICTV, etc. Since these movies are made in the USA, Ukrainians are willy-nilly presented with heroes, attitudes and situations that are alien to them. On the one hand, viewers of such films get used to the fact that a gay man or a Lesbian may be depicted as an ordinary, undistinguished actor on the screen. On the other hand, an unusual abundance of such on-screen characters leads a spectator to believe that this phenomenon is foreign and could not exist here, in own country.Like everywhere in the world gay men prefer to seach of sexual partners on special cruising areas that were traditionally gay-meeting points even in Soviet period of Ukrainian history. Such places are usually located in and near the public toilettes in parks or at railway stations. The gay meeting points are traditionally called "pleshka" (translated from Russian: small bald patch) in this country and they are main gay-scene objects here. Regardless of contradictory views of such places in the gay environment, pleshkas are marked by lots of intensive activity. Here you can meet people who are into socializing and seeking fast sex. Visitors of pleshkas represent all strata of the population, however, a minority of gay population (about 2-3 per cents) attends pleshkas at all. Among other places the gay men use for socializing and fast sex should be mentioned irregular gay discothecs in big cities, private parties, some publich bath houses and similar facilities - from the outset of the summer season, illegal nudist beaches in Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, and Simeis (Crimea) attract "elderly" visitors. The absolut majority of Ukrainian news papers avoid to publish any gay personals. Relatively visible gay activity can be notified in big Ukrainian cities only - incontestable gay capital of Ukraine is the city of Kharkov with two gay discothecs and well-developed gay infrastructure. The Western part of the country lying under strong influence of Catholic church is definitely less gay-friendly. And you should not forget about the fact that gay men living in the countryside (small towns, villages) can have sex only with accidental straight partners. That's why rural guys do their best to move to the cities like Kharkov or Kiev, where they can meet like-minded persons at least. For them any other possibility of having an existence worthy of a human being doesn't exist at all. Sumig up the facts mentioned above we should make several conclusions about the gay life in the Ukraine nowadays:
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But gay men and Lesbian women feel they have to take additional measures for disguising their true sexual identities and preferences - in order not bring out in the open personality aspects that a usual person would never think of concealing in the first place.
Living openly gay could bring the person to serious troubles anytime. The only openly gay men you could see in the streets of big Ukrainian cities are very feminine and look mostly like transgenders: the reason is they have nothing to lose, because even if they try to keep theit homosexuality undercovered, it will be obvious anyway by the way they act.
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