Vibrant street celebrations turned into going into hiding and running for their lives. Pouring drinks at a bar became making Molotov cocktails. Such scenes are part of the latest campaign from pro-patriotic queer organization UkrainePride. 

In partnership with LGBTQIA+ dating app Taimi, UkrainePride released an almost three-minute video, “Pride Is Not Available In Your Region.” The project captures the life of the queer community whose members must now defend not only their identities but their homes.

“Now, during Pride Month, when the whole world is fighting for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people, members of the Ukrainian LGBTQIA+ community are fighting for their lives, their land and the democratic values of any modern state,” Yana Andyol, head of communications for Taimi, said in a press release. 

The inspiration for the video came from the Reyvakh Pride political performance that UkrainePride held last year, according to the video’s creative director, Yura Dvizhon. The Pride performance, disguised as a rave, took place outside of Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy’s office as a response to repeated hate crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community and the lack of anti-discrimination laws. This demonstration was supposed to be an annual event—until Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Russia, which is focused on seizing the Donbas and Luhansk regions, has caused massive destruction in eastern Ukraine. As the Russian military has laid siege to towns, members of the Ukrainian queer community have moved to the front lines. 

“Some community members work as doctors, some volunteer, and some fight at the front line,” Dvizhon said in a press release. “LGBTQ people are part of the great victory that awaits Ukraine in the near future,”

UkrainePride said it hopes to organize more Pride festivities once hostilities have ended.  

The last few moments of the video show an alert telling Ukrainians, who were seen earlier at a Pride celebration, to find immediate shelter from a looming threat. The screen turns black and everything is silent. But eventually, the rave music and the Pride celebration continue.