Eurovision winner Jamala urges Mayor of Kiev to protect gay pride march

Eurovision winner Jamala has encouraged Ukrainians to accept the LGBT community in an open letter backing Kiev Pride.

On Monday (June 6), the Ukrainian singer signed an open letter from Amnesty International that called on Kyiv to support the city’s 2016 Equality March.

According to WIWI Bloggs, the letter asks the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, to support the march in order to ensure the participants’ safety.

The letter also asks Klitschko to “condemn the use of hate speech” and support the freedom of expression.

The Equality March, which is scheduled on June 12, made a post to their Facebook page, writing that the event “is a peaceful human rights supporting emonstration that appears as a realization of the freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of speech and expression for LGBT community and stands for drawing attention to the problems faced by many LGBT people.”

The letter comes after Ukrainian neo-Nazis threatened a ‘bloodbath’ at the planned pride last month.

This isn’t the first time Jamala has publicly voiced her support for LGBT rights.

The 32-year-old singer told the BBC last month: “A lot of gay people love this competition. I want us [to] show respect for different people with different orientations and cultures. Despite the face that we have a war, I want future guests of Eurovision [to] feel safe.”

Eurovision bosses were previously forced to defend Jamala’s win after fans claimed that the voting changes resulted in the ‘wrong’ winner.

In This Article: