Rebel Queers: Ukraine’s Queer Resistance

Before the Russian full-scale invasion to Ukraine in 2022, subversive collective Rebel Queers would defy the hetero normative and patriarchal world that so suffocated them by scrawling on the walls of Kyiv: ‘Queer Sex,’ ‘Make Queer Punk Again,’ and ‘Be Queer, Do Crime, Hail Satan,’ among others. The driving force behind Rebel Queers is Angelika Ustymenko, a non-binary and neurodivergent artist and filmmaker. When their country and community came under attack, they resolved to document the experiences of queer Ukrainians during wartime. On the first anniversary of the full-scale invasion, Angelika began a new phase of their documentary project, collaborating with Huck Docs to collect queer soldiers’ reflections after a year of war and broadening the focus to include other forms of queer resistance.