Diverse. Equal. Ukrainians

[isdgroup], Hashtag, Riseplan, Coderiver

Ukraine ranks 36th out of 49 European countries in the ILGA ranking, which considers the level of discrimination, hate crimes, legal recognition of gender,and protection of bodily integrity of the LGBTQ+ community. The global research on the attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community by Pew Research Center showed that 14% of Ukrainians accept it. 6 million are ready to support the LGBTQ+ community. Still, they remain invisible and silent out of fear of being condemned. Using traditional LGBTQ+ symbols puts people at risk of being attacked. Thus, they have no ways to show their support.  How could we give a safe way for 6 million of Ukrainian LGBTQ+allies to demonstrate their support? We started the first safe LGBTQ+ allies movement – Rizni.Rivni (Diverse.Equal in Ukrainian). Rizni.Rivni provided the allies with the new equality symbol to make their support visible while remaining safe. The symbol is an open palm that unites thousands of hands, the hands of all LGBTQ+ allies. Using this symbol as a sign lets allies state “I am a friend, it’s safe around me”. The strategy then manifested into the Manifesto Rizni.Rivni, visual identity, the equality fashion collection, the online platform for safe support. All these attributes of the movement have launched a wave of support among Ukrainian allies online and offline, in business, politics and culture.