Olena Shevchenko joined the revolution in its very first days, but the idea to form a women-only “sotnya” (a Cossack term for a group of one hundred fighters) came a bit later, as a response to rising sexism within Maidan (Independence) Square. The women in Maidan Square were being asked to make sandwiches; meanwhile, they had been building the barricades. At the start, Olena had only eight women in her military unit (mostly human rights activists from feminist or LGBT groups). But thanks to social media, the number rose to 500 people in Independence Square and more than 1,500 at other locations. “It was amazing, because ‘feminism’ is still a dirty word in Ukraine,” she says, “the same as ‘gay.’” Homophobia has been on the rise in Ukraine. A 2013 GFK Ukraine study showed that 80 percent of those polled had negative attitudes towards gay people. The new government is actively trying to block an anti-discrimination law that would protect LGBT people in workplaces. Svoboda MP Yuriy Syrotyuk is right when he says that “the majority of local members of the parliament would not [vote for gay marriage legislation]. “ There are even reports that the European Union has considered tabling LGBT civil rights in Ukraine. Pavel Petrenko, the country's Justice Minister, said Monday that the European Commission had dropped a demand to include "sexual minorities" in an anti-discrimination law, a requirement for EU integration.Later, the EU embassy in Kiev responded: “There is no change of the EU position; we prefer a solution whereby the law covers sexual orientation,” stated David Stulík, press and information officer for the EU delegation to Ukraine. According to Globa, who attended talks on Wednesday between European Commission representatives and Ukrainian civil rights groups, the European Commission has dropped gay rights provisions from its negotiation requirements. I asked Shevchenko of the “Maidan Amazons” the same question: Does she feel “betrayed” by the new, post-revolution government? For Shevchenko, the alternative—some kind of union with Russia—seems much worse. “What gay rights would we be talking about in that case?” she says. Source