Bogdan Globa

Bogdan Globa is a human rights activist who left Ukraine and relocated to New York in 2016. He is the first openly gay person to present a speech to the Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada. Bogdan lobbied antidiscrimination and civil partnership laws in Ukraine. From 2015 until 2016, he worked as an assistant to the chairman of the Human Rights Committee of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Hryhoriy Nemyria. Today Bogdan is the founder and leader of the New York-based ProudUkraine, an association of LGBT+ Ukrainians living in North America, committed to assisting others and raising awareness of issues that LGBT+ individuals in Ukraine are facing.

Guest op-ed: How Russia exports homophobia into Ukraine

During the Euromaidan protests, Russia deliberately stoked anti-LGBT bigotry in Ukraine as part of a campaign to delegitimate Western values and keep Ukraine in Russia’s sphere of influence. These deliberate attacks must be publicized and taken seriously by the United States and others. If they aren’t, Russia will continue to sow division within and among democratic nations.