The organizer of the Equality Picket in Sumy was forced to resign

Activist Olga Panfilova, who have organized a rally in support of the Kyiv Equality March in Sumy, was forced to resign from her job.

As reported by reporter of the Human Rights Information Centre.

As a reminder, on June 18, the girl went to the Soborna central street of the city with a poster “Country for all” and flowers for passers-by – in honor of diversity. The bodies of executive powers were notified about the picket in advance.

Most of the passers-by reacted to this solitary Equality Picket extremely aggressively – Olga has heard swears, curses and one elderly woman doused her with “holy water”. In the end, the girl guarded by the police was escorted to a safe place and put in a car.

However, after the Picket, Olga, who works as a spokesperson for Sumy organization Petro Poroshenko Bloc “Solidarity”, was called by the management and told that she disgraced the political party and was dismissed from work.

“One phrase was literally: “shove your opinion in the a… sit quietly and just give birth to children”, – as reported by Olga Panfilova to the Human Rights Information Centre.

According to her, on Monday the leadership seems to have changed its mind, most likely, not wanting publicity and scandal. However, there were no apologies.

“I did not want to provoke anyone with my picket. It’s my personal position, which has nothing to do with the political party. I am shocked by the negativity and aggression that hit me. Incidentally, I am not a representative of the LGBT-community, but I am ready to fight for their rights after all that happened. Now I understand what they are facing. They are indeed heroes”, – Olga Panfilova said.

On Monday, she wrote a letter of resignation from work by herself. As she have stressed, regardless of the decision of the leadership, she will no longer work in the political party.

“It is simply impossible after such attitude. I want to be honest with myself”, – the girl said.

As a reminder, the Equality March took place on June 18. It occurred without significant provocations. According to the police, about 2.5 thousand people at the event. Among them are the ambassador of Canada Roman Vashchuk, the ambassador of Great Britain Judith Gough, and the ambassador of Sweden Martin Hagström.

Organizers of KyivPride have changed the route, since almost 100 participants of the action against the conduct of KyivPride continuously walked along the pedestrian crossing at the Shevchenko University, forming a chain.

The police have detained six opponents of the March, who tried to break through the cordon of law enforcement officers. During the detention, two policemen received minor injuries.

In addition, two persons have also attacked Oleksandr Varnin, volunteer of the Human Rights Information Centre. According to Dinara Kasymbekova, employee of the organization, the man was hit from behind. At the same time, she notes that she was surprised by the attack, since the volunteer was wearing a mask during the Equality March.

It also became known that on Sunday, after the Equality March, opponents of KyivPride attacked a foreigner with symbols of LGBT in the cafe near the Ploshcha Lva Tolstoho metro station. Radical young people tried to rip off the rainbow bracelet from an Israeli citizen.

In addition, Belarusian volunteer of the OZON association was attacked and beaten in Kyiv. The association was monitoring the Equality March.