< Translator’s note: The original formatting of the stories has been preserved. The translations aim to remain as close as possible to each author's original wording and expression.

 

Honestly, I don’t know whether gender or sexual orientation was the reason for what happened, but I do know this: somehow, those people found out that I am a lesbian.

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I was with a friend. At first, two or three of them started throwing firecrackers at us, and then more and more joined in. They were mostly adult men, and there were many of them. They had two cars, and they were throwing the firecrackers from the windows.

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To be honest, I was afraid I wouldn’t make it home.

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At first, we thought it was just a joke, so we decided to take a detour through a field to get home. It was almost 10 p.m. Suddenly, another car — one we hadn’t noticed before — drove off the main road into the field. After that, we just ran from them.

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Eventually, they cornered us and, laughing, kept driving around while throwing firecrackers in our direction. When a few of them landed almost at my feet, we managed to run away and hide.

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I was 17 at the time, so I should have already been home by then, but I called the police. In the end, the police blamed my friend and me for being outside late and for the fact that I, as a minor, had called them.

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I heard things like:
“Where did you get so smart from?”
“Calling the police over childish nonsense just because someone is bothering you?”

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Mariia, 18 (woman); story shared in 2025 as part of the campaign “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.”