The petition calls for the demolition of the monument to Russian Empress Catherine II in Odessa and its replacement with a statue of porn actor Billy Herrington. RT reports on this story, which is available on the President’s website.
The authors of the proposal indicated that Catherine II is the destroyer of the Ukrainian state and culture. Similarly, they noted that American actor Johnny Depp will “cheer up” the townspeople and signal support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community members in Kyiv.
As of May 2018, Ukraine’s president was legally required to consider and respond to any petition left on his website, collecting more than 25,000 signatures.
Billy Herrington’s popularity spread when he became known for his gay porn movies during the 1990s. Earlier this year his fame reached meme levels, and people began to make Internet memes that parodied excerpts from the video of relevance.
Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s fifth largest city and home to a 1st-century Byzantine Christian cathedral, is often overshadowed by its sister cities in the country’s center, including Odesa and Kyiv. Now, it seems like interest in Herrington has been piqued again after plans were put forth to name the square adjacent to his memorial there for him.
