A transgender American is the Ukrainian army’s latest spokesman.
“This official support for my service in Ukraine, made in such a rapid and public manner, is humbling and validating in ways that I will never be able to properly describe,” tweeted Sarah Ashton-Cirillo on Thursday, August 3rd, shortly after being appointed one of the Ukrainian army’s spokesmen.
The appointment itself would probably not have made the headlines, but the fact that Ashton-Cirillo is American and transgender—a biological man who ‘transitioned’ four years ago—has raised eyebrows across Europe.
“Part of the narrative used against me by the propagandist war criminals in Russia was focused on my identity. That’s a laughable line of attack since in Ukraine we aren’t fighting for tolerance or acceptance for select groups of people but liberty and liberation for all people,” Ashton-Cirillo wrote in a reply to Newsweek, following the news of the appointment and harsh criticism from Russian outlets.
Though the main aim of the fight against Russian forces is the liberation for all people in Ukraine, Ashton-Cirillo told the LGBT newspaper Washington Blade in May that an important aspect of that liberation would be that “this victory will help strengthen the LGBT community around the world because there’s going to be one less country that will be able to persecute Ukrainians, LGBTQ members.”
Ukraine has been seen as one of the most hostile countries towards homosexuals in the past few decades—participants of gay pride marches were regularly attacked—but attitudes appear to have changed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February. Support for the LGBT community has become a sign of embracing ‘Western values’ and distancing itself from Russia. “Russia is a homophobic country … we want to be different from them,” Inna Sovsun, member of the Ukrainian parliament put it very simply.
“Anything that our enemy hates … I will support … This law [legislation for same-sex partnerships] is like a smile towards Europe and a middle finger to Russia. So I support it,” another MP, Andriy Kozhemiakin told The Guardian, referring to a draft law introduced this year to Ukraine’s parliament that would give same-sex unions legal status for the first time.
Distinguishing Ukraine from Russia, showcasing more liberal and ‘modern’ attitudes also has the side effect of aligning the country more closely with the progressive attitudes of the current U.S. leadership. Leading LGBT advocate Andriy Kravchuk revealed to the Kyiv Post the true purpose behind these Ukrainian initiatives:
Ukraine’s authorities are definitely motivated by the need to look like a modern liberal state in front of their Western partners much more than they are by the need to protect human rights of their own citizens.
Attitudes in Ukrainian society seem to be changing rapidly. A survey by the sociological group ‘Rating,’ published in August 2021, said 47% of respondents had a negative view of the LGBT community. A more recent survey found that 58% of Ukrainians felt positive or neutral towards their LGBT compatriots. The Institute of Sociology at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in its 2022 poll found that 53% of Ukrainians supported the recognition of same-sex unions in some form, compared to 33% in 2013. Whether the increased support of the rights of the LGB community extends also to the transgender community was not within the scope of this poll.
Sarah Ashton-Cirillo is now the face of Ukrainian politics aligning with ‘Western values,’ especially those of the United States who made Dr. Rachel Levine, another transgender person, a four-starred admiral. The 45-year-old Ashton-Cirillo first arrived in Ukraine after the start of the war as a journalist, but in October enlisted in the army as a combat medic.
When Ashton-Cirillo was hit by shell fragments and injured in February, the American had already begun working for the Territorial Defense Forces as a host of English-language shows. Ashton-Cirillo concedes that coming to prominence as a transgender person is an important asset for Ukraine in attracting international attention.
