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    Bandera song cheered at Munich Gay Pride Archived Message

    Posted by Ian M on July 10, 2023, 11:30 pm

    h/t Max Blumenthal, my jaw dropped when I saw this. A Ukrainian singer, Melovin. In Munich. At a Gay Pride rally. He actually titled the video 'Who said Bandera was a homophobe?':

    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mXW3pzy8yAg

    Has the neoliberal woke psychosis peaked yet?

    RT report:

    *****

    https://www.rt.com/news/578929-germany-lgbtq-pride-bandera/

    German Gay Pride event celebrates Nazi collaborator (VIDEO)

    One artist performed a song praising Ukrainian ultranationalist Stepan Bandera as the crowd cheered and sang along

    Ukrainian singer Melovin has shared a video of himself performing a song celebrating ultranationalist Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera at a Gay Pride march in Munich, Germany on Sunday.

    The clip was published on the artist’s social media accounts with the caption “Who said Bandera was a homophobe?” and featured Melovin singing “Bandera is our father, Ukraine is our mother, for Ukraine we will fight.” The large crowd, which was waving Ukrainian and LGBTQ flags, enthusiastically danced and sang along to the lyrics.

    However, the video has triggered a backlash online, with many users questioning the need to link Ukraine’s national identity with Nazi collaborators such as Bandera.

    Bandera was the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which was infamous for its anti-Semitic ideology and active collaboration with Nazi forces. During World War II, the OUN’s paramilitary wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), was responsible for slaughtering tens of thousands of Poles and contributing to the Holocaust in Ukraine, which is estimated to have cost as many as 1.6 million Jewish lives.

    Despite being internationally recognized as a Nazi collaborator, Bandera has officially been hailed by Kiev as a national hero since 2010. Ukrainian nationalists regularly hold torchlit marches and demonstrations in honor of his birthday on January

    Kiev’s public reverence of Bandera has drawn criticism from some of its Western backers as well as Russia, which has stated that “denazification” is among the primary goals of its military campaign against Ukraine.

    Some comments under Melovin’s video pointed out the irony of Bandera being celebrated at an LGBTQ event in Germany, considering that the Nazis and the OUN vehemently opposed homosexuality. Hitler’s regime extensively persecuted gay men, often either executing them or shipping them off to concentration camps where most of them died.

    “LGBT representatives glorify Bandera, who, together with Hitler, hanged representatives of all these LGBT people,” one user noted. Another commenter, apparently a supporter of Bandera, suggested that Bandera would “turn over in his grave” if he saw himself being celebrated at an LGBTQ event. “Do you think that the son of a Greek Catholic priest would tolerate such promiscuity and sodomy?” he asked.

    *****

    The rally organisers did some damage control afterwards and 'distanced' themselves from the 'choice of song', but there's no getting away from the fact that many in the audience a) knew the call and response and b) joined in enthusiastically. WTF is wrong with these people?

    *****

    https://www.csdmuenchen.de/en/news-details/munich-pride-distances-itself-from-melovin-s-song.html

    Munich Pride distances itself from Mélovin's song

    We invited Mélovin to Munich as a queer singer and activist who courageously stands up for the LGBTIQ* community in his country. The list of his songs had been agreed upon in advance; the song "Bandera is our father, Ukraine is our mother" was not on it. We would not have allowed it otherwise.

    In fact, we as CSD Munich only found out last Thursday, 29 June, that Mélovin had sung this song and what its content was. We had received a few emails from individuals and the media. We immediately contacted Mélovin and the city of Munich to clarify the situation and to answer the individual enquiries with an official statement from CSD Munich on Friday. For reasons of transparency and because distancing ourselves from Stepan Bandera is important to us, we decided on Sunday, 2 July, to also make the statement public here.

    Even if we did not know about the new interpretation of the song, which has gone viral in Ukraine in the meantime, there is no doubt that Stepan Bandera, as a historical person, central leadership figure of a radical nationalist organisation and because of his responsibility for mass murders - especially of Jews and Poles - stands in maximum opposition to the values that CSD Munich stands for.

    Despite our unwavering solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance against the inhumane Russian war of aggression, the fact that the focus in Ukraine is currently on Bandera's role as a fighter for the independence of his country due to the existentially threatening situation cannot change this.

    CSD Munich stands for cosmopolitanism, equal rights and acceptance towards all people. For years we have stood in solidarity behind the queer community in our partner city Kyiv and Ukraine; since 2022 we have commemorated their (queer) war victims. We therefore distance ourselves from the choice of song.

    *****

    Lyrics & translation fyi: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/bat%CA%B9k%D0%BE-nash-bandera-our-fathers-bandera.html

    Unbelievable times we live in.

    jeers,
    I

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