In May she publicly encouraged Ukrainians to embrace the LGBT community.
And on Monday Eurovision 2016 winner Jamala — real name Susana Dzhamaladynova — continued to preach tolerance, signing an open letter from Amnesty International that calls on Kyiv to support and defend the city’s Equality March 2016.
As lgbt.org.ua explains, the letter calls on Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko to get behind the Equality March, which is scheduled for June 12, and ensure the safety of its participants.
It also calls on Klitschko to publicly support the freedom of expression and assembly and to condemn the use of hate speech and incitement of violence.
According to the Equality March Facebook page, the event “is a peaceful human rights demonstration that appears as 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 LGBT people.”
Jamala’s star has continued to rise since winning Eurovision and her endorsement of the event is significant.
Klitschko desperately wants Kyiv to host Eurovision 2017 and is locked in a battle with rival city Lyiv. With the Eurovision 2016 winner hounding him to get behind LGBT rights, it will be interesting to see if he chooses to do so.
This is not the first time Jamala has spoken up for the LGBT community.
On May 20, ahead of a concert in Lviv, the “1944” singer called for greater tolerance toward sexual minorities during an interview with the BBC.
“A lot of people gay love this competition,” she said. “I want us show respect for different people with different orientations and culture. Despite the fact that we have a war, I want future guests of Eurovision feel safe.”
Read more Ukraine Eurovision news
Come on, this is PROGRESS for a Euro-Eastern country like Ukraine. I watched the Ukraine ESC NF earlier this year & saw many gays in the audience. They’re clearly more invested in LGBT rights than Russia,etc.
In my opinion Ukraine isn`t gay-friendly place. Although law isn`t anti-gay, part of people hates gays and lesbians.
What’s the use of organizing march of equity every year when the result is always the same: clashes between nazis and gays, between nazis and opllice, between police and gays, between gays and gays, between police and police… 100s of wounded, dozens taken to the jail…
@ESC84
Thanks for the recommendation 🙂 i know “Mary Lou” film its great… but the other one You mentioned i dont know.. do you have a link or something?
?OR
This is a bit out of topic, but i recommend you watch Mary Lou, an Israeli film about LGBT and they even did a song of Dana International. Also a Israeli film about Eurovision Cupcake in 2013( though i think this is not a very good film, Mary Lou is better)
@Charles What you do not understand about @Alexanderized comment ? Ukraine Victory controversial because of the Ukraine’n political song that relates to issues that occurred in 1944 but is still relevant today because Russia And Ukraine also today are in a kind of cold war situation!!! The situation between the two countries has not yet been resolved, So in the eyes of many people’s the victory of Ukraine is political, and their right To think so!! DANA INTERNATIONAL victory is not Controversy at all , Dana won because her song was the best in 1998 , That testify – “Diva”… Read more »
@Alexanderized: Again … if you love controversy Dana International is the ONLY one who will give you reasons to love it even more … if your sole purpose is to scream to all the seven winds that you can’t stand Jamala so the point where you whole life is forever traumatized then … don’t waste your own time … its so irrelevant.
Both Sergey and Jamala support LGBTQ+ rights, undeniably so. The difference is that Jamala can be a lot more open about it- Ukraine isn’t a great place in terms of LGBTQ+ rights, but it’s miles ahead of Russia in that regard and doesn’t have an “anti gay propaganda law” so she can’t be legally prosecuted in the same way Sergey can. Listen to their conferences- Sergey had to carefully dance around the subject and only supported LGBTQ+ rights subtly, whereas Jamala gave an unambiguous sign of support. Jamala is carrying on this support as a straight and cisgender ally with… Read more »
@Darren
Yeah, whatever you say… From now on I will ignore you (and I will do the same with people like you), so this is the last time you see the name “Darren” in my comments. One thing: “One step at a time, get out of the darkness and into the light forever”. Bye and good luck with your life 🙂
@The Brightest Falling Star
Inferior to you? Hardly! You’re just an innocent queen who cannot examine the context of different issues, you just accept things for the way they appear. You have not got any proper mature things to say so you just resort to insults. Says a lot about you. You’re pathetic. Sort your life out, then maybe post something worth while and mature.
Sergey has always been friendly to LGBT audience. That’s why no one booed Russia this year,they ponder to the gay audience. As if that suddenly makes everything O.K.
To my knowledge Jamala has also been supportive of LGBT long before ESC. Of course her win can now give the cause more attention, and that can only be a good thing. Of course he does it for humanity
As a minority myself I think its important to support other minorities and their rights. Jamala seems to have the same thoughts.
@Lili
OK, I didn’t know.
@The Brightest Falling Star
Respect For Jamala.
But why do you say that Sergey should learn from her? Sergey has always supported the LGBT community. He had many concerts in Gay bars and he don’t approve russia’s anti-gay laws.
@Plum
@Darren
@OR
I can’t deal with inferior people like you. I will stop talking to you because you just don’t deserve my attention and I don’t want to sink to your (extremely low) level. So goodbye and I hope I will never see your comments again here.
P.S.: Sergey has much to learn from Jamala.
Plum Sergey 🙂
@Iberian
I would kindly ask you not to misspell the Russian atrist’s name accidentally or on purpose. His name is Sergey.
And he is nothing to learn from Jamala. Really.
Iberian – what should sergei learn from jamala?? I think Sergei can teach us all how to be so likeable person….he has a great personality!!!!!
@OR I know right!? Haha sounds fun! 🙂
Whether you like her winning song or not – it’s great to see Jamala being so supportive. Thanks. (Sergay Lazarev see and learn. That’s how to do things).
Darren lol …. I invite you to “hang” with me in israel , I’m sure it will be fun..you can teach me english and i will teach you Hebrew…:):) xo
@The Brightest Falling Star
“Unfortunately, I don’t see your bubble bursting soon. It’s OK, you can live in your own virtual world.”
Mmm… And no proper objection to what I’m saying. I think I’ll see your bubble bursting soon.
@The Brightest Falling Star
Better than hanging out with some immature kid, who cannot deal with other people’s opinions and gets all defensive over a country or a singer who doesn’t even care about your existence I suppose 🙂 xo
@Darren
You can hang out with your illiterate friend.
@Plum
Unfortunately, I don’t see your bubble bursting soon. It’s OK, you can live in your own virtual world.
@OR
“children’s who writing here”, “afforts”, “ignore from”, “massage”…
You have killed the English language. How old are you, 5?
@ The Brightest Falling Star
For your information, I accepted Ukraines win since the night of the grand final, but that doesn’t mean I agree with it.
It is you who is the child here. Inability to accept other opinions is also a sign of immaturity.
@OR thanks for the support 🙂 i agree with you 100%
@The Brightest Falling Star
“I’m not going to stop it unless people stop behaving like babies. “Jamala is the worst winner, her song is political, she shouldn’t have won, she is not the true winner blah blah blah…”
How old you are? You really stop behaving like a child and accept that Russia came to the contest openhearted without no intention to hurt anyone in contasr to Ukraine. Take and chew this Ukraine’s win, nobody will take it from you.
I cannot make out what makes you so uncomfortable.
@Darren @ plum just ignore children’s who writing here……it’s not worth your afforts…just keep writing your opinions and ignore from consistent trolls…they will get the massage eventually….
@Darren, Plum and the other children here
Inability to accept an unpleasant situation is a sign of immaturity. So Darren either you like it or not, you and some others are the only children here. Bye bye and try to accept reality in your lives. Of course, though, you can live in your pink bubble if you like. But be careful because it might burst 😉
DenizNL Sure we didint think that this event is a gay parade…that would be too progressive for ukrayne……
@V
A gay parade? Maybe 4 years ago, but it’s definitely not a gayshow anymore. Sure, it’s gay-friendly, but that’s it. I am not against LGBT ofcourse, but I don’t appreciate people saying everything is gay, while it is obviously just a family-show.
@The Brightest Falling Star
No you didn’t ask me if it was cool, but guess what, this is a comments section where we can voice our opinions. Stop behaving like a child.
Yes you like Ukraine, yes you think Jamala deserves to win, but no, not everyone is supposed to think so, ripple don’t think she is the deserved winner and that is there choice! Grow the hell up! We are entitled to our opinions of Jamala and the fact that you defend her so much is quite disturbing “darling”.
@Plum
I’m not going to stop it unless people stop behaving like babies. “Jamala is the worst winner, her song is political, she shouldn’t have won, she is not the true winner blah blah blah…”
These words prove that these people are more hysterical than me.
“But her entrance was apted to disgrace another country and it worked.”
Really? Disgrace another country? Have you read the lyrics?
@The Brightest Falling Star
Please stop this being hysterical about Jamala’s “true” win in each thread… Well, as a matter of fact she is.
I’m telling you once again that I wouldn’t mind her win if her song was about love, birds and flowers. But her entrance was apted to disgrace another country and it worked. She won thanks to a political anti-Russian entrance and her false personal story caused doubts of many people. That’s why her the statement in support of LGBT sounds hypocritical and I even doubt that she has initiated it by herself.
@Alexanderized
You didn’t say anything like that. By using “you” I meant that one can’t deny Jamala’s victory. This may help you: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_you
Did you understand? 🙂
@Darren
Jamala’s occasion is totally different. She didn’t provoke anyone, unlike Junire. And I didn’t ask you if it’s cool or not, “darling”.
@Shanfa Chai
That’s kind of sad to say you like throwing nasty comments. You need to get out more.
@The Brightest Falling Star
Nobody deserves to be talked to like that, rather hypocritical coming from you after you said I should accepte Jamala’s win just incase she seen my comments and got upset. Now you are saying this person deserves to be treated like that? Not cool “darling”
@The Brightest Falling Star
“But if you say that she is not the winner, then you are lying to yourself.”
Can you please point out where exactly I said that? Please please, pretty please?
She is in fact a ESC winner but in my personal opinion, not a deserved one.
@Alexanderized
I respect your opinion but everyone has to respect Jamala too. Like it or not, she is the winner and nobody can deny that. You can say that you don’t like the song, that you hate it, you can even say that you detest it. It’s your opinion. But if you say that she is not the winner, then you are lying to yourself.
@mawnck
Very-very good! You got the point of my comment! Good boy! This is exactly what I meant! The fact that she’s a ESC winner doesn’t mean that her victory can’t be overrated and controversial.
So Alexanderized, what do you call the most forgetable, overrated and controversal ESC winner in years?
THE ESC WINNER.
🙂
And good for her supporting LGBT in Ukraine. I hear that takes guts.
@Charles
I’m not talking about Dana Int., I was referring to Jamala. If you’ve got nothing really relevant to tell, why tell anything?
@Alexanderized: If I were you, I’d ask Dana International to truly teach you the real meaning of controversy in Eurovision and trust me you will be bewildered with what you’ll find …
Once you share your support and love for the LGBT community … something about the bitter and angry behaviour of some fans against Jamala starts to change … ironic, don’t you think?
@The Brightest Falling Star
So? Was the “freaking overall result” really a triumph? Did her song become a huge success? You’ll obviously disagree with me, but to me Jamala is the most forgetable, overrated and controversal ESC winner in years.
@Darren
Junire is so rude that he/she deserved that treatment. Sorry, darling 🙂
@Alexanderized
Then, having place 2nd both by jurors and televoters, she claims “My first place is 100 percent a triumph of music”
Are you serious? When are you going to understand that THE FREAKING OVERALL RESULT IS WHAT MATTERS?
Hmmm… I didn’t know that one has to be judged and needs to adjust for something so as to be called as a full “genuine” supporter of LGBT groups or the like. If so, we now need constant approval from other people (especially if they are a part of the said group of people) in order for us to meddl– I mean help with their significant rights. And last time, I thought that help is help. Is everyone not allowed to easily help those in need of it nowadays? And yeah, I hope Jamala isn’t taking this for granted. Let’s… Read more »
@Alexanderized so she needs to jump through fire rings and hoops in ways others don’t apparently then got it. There’s such an agenda here my eyes can’t roll back in my hand far enough. She could sneeze and people will say she’s not sneezing sincerely enough. This whole issue has been caused by the context others have made themselves. It’s pretty disgusting among other forms of prejudice I’m not going to bother mentioning, but the problem is people don’t WANT to believe what she has to say as opposed to anything she’s said. This has been a game of who… Read more »
@ESC84
This is exactly what I was about to say.
I do not believe in her sincerity.
@Blerg
“Not like she gets enough shit…”
I personally think that “she gets so much shit” because what she’s doing or saying doesn’t look sincere enough. First, she sings an obviously political song and calls it “personal”. Then, having place 2nd both by jurors and televoters, she claims “My first place is 100 percent a triumph of music”, and now this: making questionable efforts to seem gay friendly and stuff. My opinion.
Well if she really wants to do something to LGBT community it should be praised.
However, if she wants to gain popularity by supporting LGBT community.That is unacceptable( like i said before, i don’ t like politician came out before election just for gay votes instead of doing their business)
I would like to believe what she was trying to do is for humanity issues, but with voting history of her 1944, this is doubtful to me.(again)
Ah OR, darlin; 67 cases of violence in the first halve of 2008 in Amsterdam? Dayum, What’s next, the ammount of people beaten up by colour of skin, religion, homosexuality, gender or whatever in 1995? Lmao, I get what you are doing and it is so sad. Amsterdam is hosting the world pride this year, Dutch elemantary schools are required to educate about homosexuality in some way or another. A lot of famous Dutch hosts are openly LGBT. Gordon 2009 Douwe 2016, Gerard Joling 1986 are all part of the LGBT community singing on the ESC stage. Gay Marriage since… Read more »