The presentation draws on research conducted by the NGO “Workshop for the Academic Study of Religions” in 2021-2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. An overview of the research project, including its methodology and results, will be presented. The research focuses on the combination of various individual and collective identities (religious, sexual, and feminist) and explores the personal experience of modern Ukrainian believers (present or former) who self-identify as feminists and/or LGBT. When they experience some kind of “identity crisis” on a personal level, do they turn to their respective religious communities for help or do they prefer to withdraw from them, knowing that religious communities do not always tolerate feminists or LGBT people? What strategies do feminist and LGBT believers use to reconcile competing identities? Are religious communities in Ukraine open to feminist and/or LGBT believers or do they prefer to ignore and exclude them? These and other issues will be discussed in the presentation, which will also include a brief introduction on the religious and human rights situation in Ukraine.
