Ukraine’s LGBTQ+ Fund Seeks Help for Transgender People, Supported by President Zelenskyy

The Ukrainian organization We Support LGBTQ Ukraine Fund has launched a website to collect donations for the needs of transgender people in Ukraine. According to the information published on the website, financial support is needed for the urgent needs of Ukrainian transgender people, including sex reassignment operations and hormone therapy for children. The website contains a statement by Vododymyr Zelenskyy approving the initiative and calling on Americans and Europeans to help Ukrainian trans community.

The fundraising campaign “We support LGBTQ in Ukraine” for gender therapy was launched with the support of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On the recently created website mytransitionua.org an appeal has been published to residents of Europe and America with a request for financial assistance for transgender people in Ukraine. The organization behind the fundraising campaign is We Support LGBTQ Ukraine Fund, a well-known non-profit Ukrainian group defending the rights of sexual minorities and supported by the Government of Ukraine.

“Now is a very hard time for all residents of Ukraine, but for some it is even harder.” – says an official statement on the website. “Ukrainian medical institutions are experiencing a shortage of medical supplies, equipment and doctors. Many clinics have closed due to the bombings. Many transpersonal patients including children have to wait months for medications for hormone therapy. All surgeries have been postponed indefinitely.”

Further, the organizers of the campaign appeal to the citizens of Western countries with a request for financial assistance: “In this regard, we ask you to provide financial support to our foundation, which in turn will take on the tasks of providing trans people with medical supplies, psychological assistance, and also contribute to the opening of a clinic for sex reassignment surgery.”

In addition to that there is a similar appeal by the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy published in the website. “Unfortunately, given the difficult situation we are in, we are currently unable to finance at the state level the medical expenses necessary to ensure a comfortable standard of living for trans people in our state.” – it states. “Nevertheless, they need help, and again we turn to you for support, because we know that you will not leave those in need of help in trouble.”

Earlier Zelenskyy and his close allies have repeatedly been criticized by the Ukrainian LGBTQ+ community for not being sufficiently committed to Western values in ensuring equal rights for members of the community. However, now the Ukrainian president demonstrates an increased openness to the LGBTQ+ community problems and vows to ensure equal rights for everyone. 

There is a “Donate” button below Zelenskyy’s statement which leads to the official page of the National Bank of Ukraine. This page is dedicated to collecting foreign donations for various needs of Ukraine. 

To attract Western users who are not indifferent to the problem of LGBTQ+ community, the site features some stories of Ukrainian transgender people who will allegedly benefit from the donations collected through the website. 

For example, a 9-year-old boy from Lviv, who calls himself Oleksa, no longer wants to be a boy and dreams of becoming a girl. “I want to start the treatment now, because I’m afraid that I’ll miss the right moment and get stuck in my body,” writes Oleksa.

11-year-old boy from Kiev who goes under the name of Madeleine declares that he wants to have a sex reassignment operation as soon as he turns 14. “I know that I will have sex reassignment surgery when I turn 14,” says Madeleine. – “In Ukraine, such operations are allowed starting from the age of 25, but I don’t want to wait that long. I will go to the USA or Europe for the operation.”

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The website mytransitionua.org first appeared publicly on X platform when an ex-spokesperson for the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine, an American trans-woman journalist Sarah Ashton-Cirillo posted a tweet about this fundraising campaign. The tweet, however, it a short time has received a lot of negative reactions from the X users who did not seem to like the initiative, and eventually was removed.

It is unknown how successful the fundraising campaign will turn out, but all in all the initiative looks bold and unexpected. Given the wide international support for the LGBTQ+ community, mytransitionua.org might find significant support among the Western population.

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