Equality Festival denied premises in Zaporizhzhia city

The Equality Festival, which is to be held in Zaporizhzhia city this weekend, was denied premises. The Jewish Center refused to provide its premises because of threats the administration received from the People’s Self-Defense initiative.

Yana Sasina, the coordinator of the Equality Festival in Zaporizhzhia, said this in a commentary to Hromadske.tv Zaporizhzhia.

“On Friday I received a call from the Max Grant center, phone was handed over to a man who introduced himself as Ihor Hrytsaenko. He demanded to cancel the program dedicated to the problems of LGBT community, resorting to insults towards its representatives and indirect threats,” Yana said.

According to her, the Max Grant center was closed earlier that day and all classes for children were canceled.

Ihor Hrytsaenko confirmed he had had a conversation with both the administration and coordinator Yana Sasina regarding the planned event:

“I told Yana that was a sin of Sodom. She said: ‘Do you threaten me?’ I said: ‘I do not threaten you, I say that people had been stoned for that. So it is written in the Scriptures.’ I told her: “Explain me, will you have a gay pride parade?’ She said: ‘No, but we will have the LGBT platform’,” he said in a commentary to Hromadske.tv Zaporizhzhia.

The Jewish Center refused to give commentaries: neither director of “Mazal-Tov” Inessa Nosenko nor a security gave a direct answer to question why the even had been cancelled:

“Personally I did not receive any threats, but people came,” the director said.

However, according to Yana Sasina, it was the director who had talked with representatives of People’s Self-Defense and Hrytsaenko called the coordinator from the director’s phone number.

The Center’s security said he had an official order from the Center’s security department, saying the event is cancelled. The reasons for that are unknown.

However, as Head of the NGO “Insight” Olena Shevchenko said in a commentary to the Human Rights Information Centre, the pressure on the administration of the Jewish community centre had also been exerted by a representative of the Zaporizhzhia region governor, who said he would not allow holding the Equality Festival in Zaporizhzhia.

Shevchenko reminded that the purpose of the Equality Festival was to promote the ideas of tolerance and equality and combating discrimination against the groups vulnerable to manifestations of intolerance and violence such as ethnic minorities, national communities, people with disabilities, LGBTIQ, stateless persons and migrants, internally displaced persons, houseless people and others.

The major events of the Festival include debates about hate crimes, photo exhibitions, screenings of documentaries and feature films, interactive games, reciting of documentary plays, lectures, performances, etc.

The organizing committee of the Equality Festival in Zaporizhzhia city appealed to Mayor Volodymyr Buriak with a request to provide the premises for the event on September 24. If the city denies the Equality Festival public space for its holding, the organizers promise to hold the event outdoors, having notified the city administration in advance, as required by law.