Marianna is a queer activist from the south of Ukraine. She is also the head of an LGBTQ+ organization, “For Equal Rights,” which has been working toward equality in her home region. Marianna spent her entire life in Kherson, up until the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine uprooted her and forced her to become a refugee. She managed to escape her home city right before Russians occupied it, and helped hundreds of queer Ukrainians flee occupation when Kherson was under Russian control. “I know that if I didn’t flee early on, Russians would be hunting for me,” Marianna says, “They were looking for queer people, torturing and killing many. I am not sure if I’d be alive now if I had stayed under occupation,” she added.