Episode 190: Kelly Whelan & Ukraine

Coming Out Pod

Health & Fitness, Sexuality, Comedy, Mental Health

4.9 • 584 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2022

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kelly Whelan is a human trafficking researcher for the UN *and* a former professional ice hockey player who has lived all over the globe! But it was Ukraine specifically that captured her heart; partly because the country and its people figure so prominently into her own coming out story. In fact, Kelly's gradual embracing of her own queerness seemed to run parallel to similar strides Ukraine itself has made in recent years. Now, though, with Russia's invasion, LGBTQ Ukrainians - people whom Kelly knows and loves - are in danger. Kelly not only shares her own story, but lays out simply and clearly what is happening in Ukraine right now, and what it specifically means for the country's queer population. She also provides insight about what we can do beyond donating to help Ukrainian refugees in general, and queer Ukrainian refugees in particular. Слава Україні - Glory to Ukraine!

Follow Kelly on Instagram and Twitter at @kellythenomad, and check out the ice hockey organization she founded in Ukraine at forwomenshockeyinukraine.org! And now...a whole bunch of ways you can help:

- Nash Mir (gay.org.ua/en/): One of the most prominent LGBTQ activist organizations in Ukraine. They work to educate Ukrainian society about LGBTQ issues, combat stereotypes, and advocate for change.
- ILGA-Europe (ilga-europe.org/support-lgbti-people-ukraine): An umbrella organization that has compiled a list of ways to donate and support directly to assist LGBTQ Ukrainians.
- The LGBT Asylum Project (lgbtasylumproject.org) and the Transgender Law Center (transgenderlawcenter.org): Both of these orgs provide legal assistance to LGBTQ asylum seekers in the U.S. Contact them for potential ways to host/help.
- RUSA LGBT (rusalgbt.com): Mentioned in the episode, an organization of Russian and Russian-speaking queer people living in the United States.
- Secure Brittney Griner's Swift and Safe Return to the U.S. (chng.it/2HHVJbczK8): Sign and share the online petition created by journalist Tamryn Spruill.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello. Hey everyone. Welcome to Coming out with Lauren and Nicole. We are a weekly podcast where we bring on queer folks from all walks of life. They tell us the tales of how they came out to friends, family, and the world at large. Because who doesn't love a coming out story?
0:22.3	Folks, today we have a coming out story and a little bit more.
0:27.5	We are here with Kelly Whelan, who is speaking to us from the Netherlands.
0:33.5	So this is very exciting because, as Nicole mentioned, before we began, all three of us have lived in the Netherlands.
0:43.3	Yeah, so we're having an all in all. Yeah, there it is. We're having it all in Netherlands spectacular. Your Dutch is already about it. You said you've lived there since like August and you've already spoken more Dutch. I think I did in three plus years.
0:58.0	So that's on me.
1:01.2	But so Kelly
1:02.4	is on today
1:03.9	because she
1:06.2	messaged us
1:07.6	and I should say up top
1:10.0	Kelly is an ice hockey player, a former professional
1:14.6	ice hockey player. And she has played in such countries as Austria, the Netherlands, which she is now,
1:20.7	Finland, Russia, and Ukraine. And as you may have guessed, those latter two countries are what we are going to be
1:30.3	heavily discussing today. But Kelly dropped us a message asking if we were thinking of doing an
1:37.0	episode about LGBT, the LGBTQ community in Ukraine. Because as I'm sure most of you know, Russia not super friendly towards queer folks.
1:50.1	We've mentioned this before on the podcast.
1:52.1	It's historically unfriendly, in fact.
1:55.8	Ukraine, my understanding, and we'll obviously talk to Kelly about this a lot more,
1:59.9	my understanding is still not like the best place in the world to be queer, but certainly leagues better than Russia.
2:08.0	Now, with this Russian invasion, there is obviously a great deal of concern about what is going to happen to the queer population of Ukraine.
2:15.8	And so Kelly messaged us saying, like, hey, you know, I played ice hockey in Ukraine for
	...

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