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J. Lester Feder @jlfeder

Writer, photographer, researcher specializing on gender, sexuality, the environment, and human rights in the US and around the globe.

Joined December 2010
  • Tweets 183
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  • Followers 5,167
42 Photos and videos
The Marriage Equality Battle in Wartime thequeerfaceofwar.beehiiv.co…

The Marriage Equality Battle in Wartime

The Russian invasion created a surge in support for partnership rights for queer soldiers in Ukraine. But now it's facing a backlash.

thequeerfaceofwar.beehiiv.com
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Stories are a tool for action — and international solidarity matters when queer people and democracy are under pressure worldwide. In Ukraine, even after growing public support for partnership rights, conservative politicians are pushing to reverse that momentum.
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That’s why I’m partnering with Ukrainian organizations and All Out on a campaign supporting partnership rights and hate crime protections. The stories in The Queer Face of War are still unfolding.
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allout.org/en/campaigns/the-…

Ukraine: The Queer Face of War - All Out

As the war enters its fifth year, queer Ukrainians defend their country without basic legal protections. Read their stories and stand for equality.

allout.org
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Today, The Queer Face of War is published in the US, the UK, and worldwide. As Russia’s full scale invasion enters its fourth year, the book documents how homophobia was weaponized during the invasion—and how queer Ukrainians fought back. Available now: thequeerfaceofwar.com
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I was saddened to learn of the death of Marlen Scandal shortly before The Queer Face of War was published. Marlen was a veteran, an activist in two revolutions, and a drag performer who carried Ukraine’s story across the world. 🕯️
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We first met at a joint Pride march between Warsaw Pride and Kyiv Pride, where Marlen presided over the Ukrainian float like a guardian angel — radiant, fearless, larger than life.
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His loss is deeply felt in Ukraine’s LGBTQ community and beyond. But his legacy — of beauty, defiance, and courage — lives on in everyone who refuses to disappear.
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Nazi Germany sent 15,000 queer men to concentration camps. Not one told their story publicly until nearly 30 years after Hitler’s death. Here’s why that silence — and one man’s decision to break it — matters for my book cover. 🧵
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Opponents of queer rights know this too — that’s why they try to erase queer history from libraries and queer people from public life. Visibility is a weapon of resistance.
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📩 Subscribe to The Queer Face of War newsletter to read more stories like Oleksii’s — and to see how queer visibility continues to shape Ukraine’s fight for freedom. thequeerfaceofwar.com

The Queer Face of War – LGBTQ Ukrainians’ Stories & History

Discover “The Queer Face of War,” the first visual and oral history of queer Ukrainians in war. Award‑winning journalist J. Lester 

thequeerfaceofwar.com
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This invisibility had real consequences. Hitler’s sodomy law was one of the only Nazi codes left on West Germany’s books after WWII. Historians estimate West Germany arrested more gay men than the Nazis did.
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