When Andrew Kushnir first came out as gay, he says he “felt like a unicorn.” Now, years later, he has the honour of marching for the countless LGBTQ Ukrainians unable to take to the streets as war rages in their country.

It’s a moment he never thought possible when he was growing up. The feeling at the time, he says, was that there was no such thing as a “queer Ukrainian.” 

“And I kind of internalized that. I thought, OK, I guess I have to choose …. Either I’m going to be gay or I’m going to be Ukrainian, and that those things