Many gay Americans who visit Eastern Europe note that Kiev’s gay scene is less tainted by snobbish attitude than in cities like Prague or Budapest. More gay visitors flock to Ukraine every year as the climate slowly changes and the reputation of friendliness and warmth begins to spread among tourists. It’s smaller (2.5 million) and sees far fewer Western tourists, though it’s still one of the more fashionable former Soviet cities. Unlike Moscow, which enjoys a stronger gay scene thanks to its robust international presence and enormous size (10 million + in the city alone), Kiev has a more repressed, reticent feel. Accordingly, gay visitors to Ukraine usually stay in Kiev and seek out fun in the capital’s slowly evolving gay bars and clubs. Kiev, Ukraine’s capital and largest city, boasts a modest gay scene, as the urban dwellers expectedly tend to be more tolerant. Despite this early progress, Ukraine remains a conservative country where most citizens dislike or ignore gays, keeping the gay culture largely underground, relegated primarily to bars and clubs.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine declared its independence and pushed through a number of social reforms in 1991, including a repeal of laws banning consensual homosexual activity – something gay rights advocates here in the United States did not accomplish nationwide until 2003.
