About ten unknown men broke into the Visual Culture Center while "Boys Don’t Cry" film was being screened. Obviously, the attackers had planned to break into the showing room with over thirty spectators, and attack them with tear-gas. However, due to prompt reaction of organizers and activists, attackers were stopped at the entrance and retained out of the room. One of the organizers coordinator of transgender programme in NGO "Insight" Timur Lysenko, who first confronted bandits blocking their access to the room, was beaten up. He and his colleague Anastasia Medco from NGO "Fulcrum", who also resisted the bandits, were heavily poisoned by tear-gas. The attackers fled the scene.

Timur was diagnosed with internal injuries and facial chemical burn. All spectators present in the room during the attack suffered from tear-gas.

Arrived police pre-qualified attack as "hooliganism". However, the tactic of attackers clearly indicates preplanning and intention: attackers were wearing masks, they had weapons, their actions were consistent and deliberate, and they fled the scene at once. The event dedicated to Transgender Day of Remembrance was announced in advance that allowed preplanning and organizing the attack. It was made on the basis of anti-transgender hatred and homophobia. Such actions should be classified under item 3 of Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: "Deliberate acts aimed at stirring [...] hatred, [...], as well as direct or indirect restriction of rights [...] on the basis of race, color of the skin, political, religious and other beliefs, gender, ethnicity or social origin, property status, place of residence, language or any other characteristic".

At the moment, several claims have been submitted to the police by aggrieved participants of the event. Organizers insist that authorities recognize the attack as pre-planned organized hate crime.

Transgendered people are often subjected to violence perpetrated by hatred. According to TGEU research project on transphobia more than 420 murders of trans persons have been reported since 2008 worldwide. In Ukraine due to the lack of monitoring system and reluctance of law enforcement agencies to classify such cases as hate crimes, the problem of xenophobia and hatred based violence remains invisible.

Number of ultra right-wing attacks on peaceful gatherings on LGBT rights and discrimination has increased for the past two years. In May 2010, two men tried to bring a smoke bomb into the cinema during film screening within the LGBT Festival Queer Week. In September 2009, both presentations of queer anthology 120 pages of Sodom held in Lviv and Kyiv were attacked by ultra right-wing groups followed by physical violence against participants. On the night of September 30, 2009 the Kyiv art center "I Gallery" was burned down following the discussion on
attacks of queer anthology presentations and official ban of the film "Bruno". Homophobic inscriptions were left on the walls of the burnt gallery.

Find the press release in Russian here.

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Contacts
Taisia Gerasymova
Board Member, NGO "Insight"

Timur Lysenko
Coordinator of transgender programme, NGO "Insight"