Ukraine.- The Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced thousands of men between the ages of 18 and 60 to join the ranks of the army, including the drag queen, auraplayed by Arthur Ozerov and since last March stands in the fight against invaders of his country.
Arthur Ozerov is 32 years old, and in recent years he has managed to make a career for himself in Kyiv as drag queen AuRa, while at the same time keeping himself busy as a beekeeper, that is, taking care of his colony of bees.
At least it was that way until the invasion of Russia began on February 24, forcing Ozerov to change his life, because, like millions of people, he had to find one of the ways to survive.
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Ozerov told LGBTQ Nation that he couldn’t sit “at home and see how people are killedhouses are destroyed,” so he opted to join the army and take a position in the military administration with a focus on logistical coordination of local relief efforts.
“I love my country. Therefore, I decided that I should do my best to help in some way,” Arthur said.
The man is openly gay despite the fact that he was married to a woman in the past, and in both Ukraine and Russia, he is same-sex marriage prohibited.
However, that has not stopped Arthur from getting along with the army in the administration and sharing on his social networks the way he looks in his characteristic camouflage uniform of the armed forces.
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People in the LGBTQ community have a complicated relationship with Ukrainian society, which is caught between the liberal west and conservative ideashowever Arthur is confident that his role in the military and his pride in his country could help that relationship.
It is worth mentioning that the LGBTQ community has made its way into Ukraine little by little, in 2019, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that “we all live together in an open society in which everyone can choose the language they want to speak, their ethnicity and their (sexual) orientation,” he said. “Leave those people alone, for God’s sake!”
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