Putin Is Showing Us What Homophobia Looks Like as a Weapon of War

March 15, 2024
The New York Times, March 15, 2022. Oleksii Polukhin’s 64 days in detention began when Russian soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint. They found that he’d been gathering information about Russian military positions to share with Ukrainian forces; they also discovered he was gay. Mr. Polukhin gave a detailed account of his detention to Projector, an […]
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How Russia’s War Against Ukraine Is Advancing LGBTQ Rights

March 7, 2023
Originially published in Politico Magazine, March 7, 2022. KYIV — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has galvanized Ukrainian society in many unexpected ways, but perhaps one of the most remarkable is how it has advanced the rights of LGBTQ people. On Tuesday, in a move that would have been nearly unthinkable a year ago, a Ukrainian […]
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Gay Couple Struggles to Stay Together as War in Ukraine Rages On

June 22, 2022
Originally published by Rolling Stone, June 22, 2022. Russian bombs brought Stepan and Maxim together. Now Russian bombs have driven them apart. The men, now both in their early thirties, were living almost 20 miles apart in the eastern Ukrainian region called the Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists went to war in 2014. They likely would […]
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Trans People Leaving Ukraine Face Danger and Transphobia. This Organization Is a Safe Haven.

June 1, 2022
Originally published by Teen Vogue, June 1, 2022. Olha Poliakova first realized something was wrong at 5:20 a.m. when her cat leapt from his usual sleeping spot on her shoulder. As Poliakova entered consciousness, she was vaguely aware of a loud boom outside. She thought a truck driver had taken a shortcut through her neighborhood. […]
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“People Are Not Coming Back to the Closet”: The Fight for Ukraine Is Also a Fight for LGBTQ Rights

March 4, 2022
Vladimir Putin’s assault on LGBTQ rights made him a hero to the global far right and a pariah in Ukraine. As the invasion enters its second week, queer Ukrainians are fighting back. Portrait of Olena Shevchenko, courtesy of Olena Shevchenko. Posted originally in Vanity Fair, March 4, 2022. On the seventh day of the war, Olena […]
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Between Dances

February 2, 2022
A community of urban ballroom dancers in Detroit has been decimated by covid. But the survivors aim to keep on dancing. Posted originally in The Washington Post Magazine on February 2, 2022. Charlotte Andrews has hazy memories from the three weeks she spent on a ventilator in the early part of the pandemic: struggling so hard to […]
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'They Just Launched a War'

June 7, 2021
Protesters took to the streets last summer to protest police violence. Lawsuits making headway in Columbus and other cities are showing that the police crackdown helped prove their point. Posted originally by Politico Magazine on May 9, 2021, at 07:00 a.m. EDT. Tammy Fournier-Alsaada was addressing a crowd in front of Ohio’s domed Capitol building […]
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This Tattoo Artist Died In One Of The Most Powerful Storms In Human History. Now His Friends And Family Are Demanding Justice.

November 30, 2019
A typhoon killed thousands of people in the Philippines. A group of survivors wants the law to start punishing fossil fuel companies that contribute the most to warming the planet.
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The Secret Battle To Save LGBT People From ISIS — And Bring Their Persecutors To Justice

June 24, 2019
One is the son of a communist who smuggled messages in kebabs for party members. The other is an army widow whose husband was killed by al-Qaeda. Together they want to convince the world that targeting LGBT people is a crime against humanity.
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Italy Is Ground Zero For The War On Women — Which Is Why These Far-Right Groups Are Meeting There

March 28, 2019
An alliance of far-right Italian politicians, Putin-affiliated Russians, and anti-LGBT activists from the US are gathering in an Italian city at the heart of the war on women.
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Copyright © 2020 J. Lester Feder
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