iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

These are critical moments to show solidarity with Ukraine and with queer people fighting authoritarianism everywhere. I can't do this without you. Please donate — and double your impact while the match lasts.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

New stops confirmed: 🇩🇪 Berlin w/ LSVD (May) + 🇳🇴 Oslo Pride, featuring a video & sound installation (June) — joining 🇦🇹 Vienna (Eurovision), 🇳🇱 Amsterdam (WorldPride) & 🇺🇦 Kyiv Pride. Two more European cities in the works.

110

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

ig news for The Queer Face of War: the European tour is growing — and a $1,000 matching grant means your donation goes twice as far right now. I'm ⅓ of the way to my $5,000 goal by May 1. 🧵

110

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

The Queer Face of War is heading to Eurovision in Vienna (May), Kyiv for Pride Month (June), and World Pride Amsterdam (July). I need to raise $5,000 by May 1 to cover printing and travel. thequeerfaceofwar.com/support/

002

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Viktor is one of 40+ voices in The Queer Face of War — a visual and oral history of queer lives during invasion.

000

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Viktor returned to the front as a combat medic. Of nearly 100 soldiers in his unit, only six remained by 2024. “This is not a war for territory. We are fighting to live in a free country.”

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

In 2018, he came out publicly: “No one should live without the dignity for which we all fought.” He founded Ukrainian LGBTIQ+ Military and Veterans for Equal Rights — advocating for visibility and safety inside the armed forces.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

In 2014, Viktor enlisted in Ukraine’s military hoping it would turn him straight. He fought Russian occupation in Donbas during some of the war’s bloodiest battles.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Ukraine wasn't perfect for a couple like them, Adam said, but "at least in Ukraine, they won't kill us for being who we are." More stories and portraits of queer people resisting authoritarianism at thequeerfaceofwar.com

thequeerfaceofwar.com

The Queer Face of War | Lester Feder

freelance journalist

032

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

They grew close. They fell in love. They were afraid to stay in Russia because of its anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Leaving wasn’t easy — Adam was still a minor and couldn’t travel alone. With help from Adam’s former teacher, they snuck back to Ukraine.

030

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Adam had witnessed the destruction of Mariupol. Sasha’s family believed Russian propaganda and believed they’d been “liberated.” Adam told him what he had seen. Adam spoke about the siege that destroyed his home and killed his grandmother. Slowly, Sasha began to question what he’d been told.

210

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Adam and Sasha met as teenagers in Moscow. Both are trans. Both are from Ukraine’s occupied south. Russia has forcibly deported tens of thousands of children from Ukraine. Putin has been indicted for this war crime by the International Criminal Court.

130

Reposted by J. Lester Feder

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

So, @politicsprose.bsky.social doesn't post on here, but I'll be joining Lester Feder — who I don't think is on here — tomorrow night at their Wharf location to talk about his new book, The Queer Face of War, out of his reporting on Ukraine. Join us! politics-prose.com/j-lester-fed...

POLITIES AND PROSE PRESENTS

J. LESTER
FEDER
W/CHRIS GEIDNER

THE QUEER
FACE
OF WAR

FRI, FEB 6
7PM
THE WHARF

07213

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

lol hi @chrisgeidner.bsky.social I’m here! Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

000

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

That’s why I’m partnering with Ukrainian organizations and All Out on a campaign supporting partnership rights and hate crime protections. The stories in The Queer Face of War are still unfolding.

000

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Stories are a tool for action — and international solidarity matters when queer people and democracy are under pressure worldwide. In Ukraine, even after growing public support for partnership rights, conservative politicians are pushing to reverse that momentum.

allout.org

Ukraine: The Queer Face of War - All Out

As the war enters its fifth year, queer Ukrainians defend their country without basic legal protections. Read their stories and stand for equality.

110

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

The people in these pages are still in danger and fighting for their rights, while we’re fighting for own democracy in the US. These stories matter even more now than when I first heard them.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Today, The Queer Face of War is published in the US, the UK, and worldwide. This book tells the story of queer Ukrainians living through Russia’s invasion—and how homophobia was used as a weapon against democracy itself.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

DC Friends! Please join me to launch my new book, The Queer Face of War: Portraits and Stories from Ukraine at Politics and Prose's Wharf location. I'll be in conversation with the extraordinary @chrisgeidner.bsky.social discussing homophobia and the global assault on democracy.

02811

Reposted by J. Lester Feder

Ryan Broderick @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

A dynamic on the ground here in Minneapolis that's been hard to wrap my head around: Local law enforcement, while trying to lower the temperature, have vanished. So it's really just protesters vs ICE. And ICE does not give a shit. They're laying siege to the city. Existentially horrifying.

916563

Reposted by J. Lester Feder

Adam Bumas @bumas.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

As @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social reports from on the ground in Minneapolis, I'm holding the fort at @garbageday.email with our monthly Garbage Intelligence issue. We have all The Game Awards numbers, including how much attention all those wins gave Clair Obscur. www.garbageday.email/p/the-oscars...

Beyond the discourse, though, it also convinced a lot more people to play the game. Data from SteamCharts shows that after the awards, the game’s concurrent player count went from a daily average of 14,000 to 45,000 within a few days. Sales estimates from SteamDB show that the week after the awards, Expedition 33 went from Steam’s 12th best-selling non-free game to number two, behind Arc Raiders.

This is exactly what awards are supposed to do. Whether or not you think Expedition 33 counts as an indie game, The Game Awards are accomplishing their most basic goal of giving attention and distinction to their winners. This wasn’t always the case — from the records we can find, there wasn’t any comparable bump back when the awards were called the Spike TV VGAs.

1284

Reposted by J. Lester Feder

Ryan Broderick @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

"Intense video" Fox News' Matt Finn writes as he smirks and laughs while filming protesters being arrested by ICE agents as he does his little state-sanctioned ride-along with them this morning.

31751188

Reposted by J. Lester Feder

Ryan Broderick @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

I need 30 people to subscribe to @garbageday.email right now. Please. We're so freaking close to 100,000. Please 😭🙏🏻❤️ www.garbageday.email

garbageday.email

Garbage Day

A newsletter about having fun online

44423

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

His loss is deeply felt in Ukraine’s LGBTQ+ community and beyond. But his legacy — of beauty, defiance, and courage — lives on in everyone who refuses to disappear.

000

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

We first met at a joint Pride march between Warsaw Pride and Kyiv Pride, where Marlen presided over the Ukrainian float like a guardian angel — radiant, fearless, larger than life.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

I was saddened to learn of the death of Marlen Scandal shortly before The Queer Face of War was published. Marlen was a veteran, an activist in two revolutions, and a drag performer who carried Ukraine’s story across the world. 🕯️

110

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

📩 Subscribe to The Queer Face of War newsletter to read more stories like Oleksii’s — and to see how queer visibility continues to shape Ukraine’s fight for freedom. thequeerfaceofwar.com

thequeerfaceofwar.com

The Queer Face of War | Lester Feder

freelance journalist

000

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Opponents of queer rights know this too — that’s why they try to erase queer history from libraries and queer people from public life. Visibility is a weapon of resistance.

110

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

When I first wrote about him for The New York Times in 2024, he was the only gay survivor of Russian persecution to report his abuse to war crimes prosecutors. Now seven have come forward — still just a fraction of the 250 queer victims identified by the Odesa-based NGO Projector.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

This is Oleksii Polukhin. Russian soldiers detained and tortured him for more than two months, demanding he identify other LGBTQ+ activists and members of the Ukrainian resistance.

110

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

As another gay Nazi survivor said after telling his story in his late 80s: “I’m living proof that Hitler didn’t win.”

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

When Kohout’s memoir The Men with the Pink Triangle finally broke that silence, it was a turning point for the Gay Liberation movement. The pink triangle — the symbol Nazis forced gay men to wear — became a global emblem of queer rights.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Gay men were not recognized as Nazi victims — and denied survivor benefits — until 1985. Nearly forty years after the war ended.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

This invisibility had real consequences. Hitler’s sodomy law was one of the only Nazi codes left on West Germany’s books after WWII. Historians estimate West Germany arrested more gay men than the Nazis did.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

The first account by a gay Holocaust survivor was published in West Germany in 1972. Even then, Josef Kohout kept his identity hidden behind a pseudonym for almost another decade.

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Nazi Germany sent 15,000 queer men to concentration camps. Not one told their story publicly until nearly 30 years after Hitler’s death. Here’s why that silence — and one man’s decision to break it — matters for my book cover. 🧵

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

After a few trips to Ukraine, I realized I was building a historic collection of portraits and oral history, giving a broad look at a queer community in war. There’s never been a project like this, since queer people usually have to stay hidden in war zones because they’re targeted for violence.

010

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

I was back in Ukraine again in 2022, this time as a human rights researcher interviewing queer Ukrainians to learn how Russia had weaponized homophobia and how they were fighting back. These conversations became The Queer Face of War, with every testimony accompanied by a portrait.

110

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

When BuzzFeed News hired me as a global queer rights correspondent in 2013, my first assignment took me to Kyiv, where I wrote about how Russia was trying to scare Ukrainians away from alliances with western democracy with slogans like “Association with the EU equals same-sex marriage.”

100

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

010

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

120

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Thanks so much @miriamelder.bsky.social for launching me down this path!

010

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Order now in the EU; sign up for my newsletter for updates on the upcoming US/UK release and news about exhibitions and events. Info at my website, thequeerfaceofwar.com

000

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

The Queer Face of War features portraits and stories of more than 40 LGBTQ+ Ukrainians, telling the story of how Putin weaponized homophobia in his crusade against democracy and how queer Ukrainians organized to defend their country and their rights.

110

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

I am thrilled to share some exciting news: I’ve just published my first book, The Queer Face of War: Portraits and Stories from Ukraine, which is now on sale in the EU. This project is the culmination of my journey as a journalist, activist, and photographer over the past 13 years.

273

J. Lester Feder @jlfeder.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Thrilled to share I’ve received an Excellence in Journalism Award from @nlgja for my @nytimes essay adapted from The Queer Face of War. www.nytimes.com/2024/03/15/o... 📖 The book version of The Queer Face of War is coming soon. Stay tuned!

010