Unknown persons in Sumy threaten to destroy "CUKR" office over a report on the LGBTQ+ community
Unknown persons are threatening to destroy the office of the Sumy media outlet "CUKR" following their material about the life of the local LGBTQ+ community.
Editor-in-chief Oleksiy Tucha reported this to the IMI representative in Sumy oblast.
The article about the life of people from the LGBTQ+ community "It's true that you can be beaten up and end up in the intensive care unit for your sexuality" was published on the media outlet's website on July 12. The article discussed the safety of LGBTQ+ people, self-acceptance and coming out, which was polarizing for the audience. The CUKR community chat and the chat of the media overall filled with vigorous debate, and as soon as July 12 a Telegram channel with over 140,000 subscribers posted a call to destroy the CUKR office.
The Telegram channel in question is "Sumy: Holovne". “They are promoting the LGBT fad, the ninny lifestyle, and other soyboy qualities. This dumpster is sponsored by unidentified international funds. Well, we know what kind of human rights advocates they are and what exactly they are sponsoring: the spread of f*ggotry and the support for gender uncertainties. It's time to destroy this stinking hole," the Telegram channel wrote in their post.
In his comment to the IMI representative, Oleksiy Tucha said that after these threats, the editorial office filed a statement with the police regarding the attempt to restrict journalists in their right to perform their professional duties.
"On the one hand, you understand that it could be some kind of bluff, empty words, and you take it more calmly. On the other hand, there are 140,000 people subscribed to the channel, and one of them may come up with something. Overall, all of us had the same reaction, we tried very hard to approach it with a level head, not to panic too much, but at the same time to protect ourselves," said the editor-in-chief.
The communications head of the Sumy Oblast National Police, Volodymyr Krupetskikh, gave a comment to the IMI representative, saying that the police had received and registered the statement. But, he added, "a case has not yet been opened. An inspection is underway."
Alyona Yatsyna, Kateryna Dyachuk
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