Ukraine may soon honour gay porn star Billy Herrington with a monument. Interestingly, if reports are to be believed, it would replace a statue of Catherine the Great in Odessa.
A petition has been filed addressed to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to commemorate American pornographic actor Billy Herrington with a monument in Odessa. So far, it has crossed 26,000 votes, which means it must be considered by the President.
A petition demanding the demolition of a statue of Russian Empress Catherine the Great to be replaced with a statue honoring gay porn star Billy Herrington has acquired enough signatures to ensure it must be considered by President Volodymyr Zelensky.https://t.co/Qs6LHZW6rW
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) July 13, 2022
The petition was launched in May by Ukrainian activist Oleksiy Yuriyovych Matveev and it crossed the threshold of 25,000 votes early this week. In the petition, the activists called Catherine II a “controversial historical figure whose actions caused great damage to Ukrainian statehood and culture.” They called on Zelenskyy to ensure that her statue located in Odessa was torn down and replaced with the statue of Herrington sitting “at the bar with a bottle of beer.”
The petition claimed that Odessa is not a part of Russian culture, and it has its own culture and sense of Humour. Replacing the statue would “send a clear signal that Ukraine supports the LGBT community.” The petitioner further said that a monument of Herrington would be “fun and funny.” He suggested that it would be worth “memes.”
Who was Billy Herrington?
Billy Herrington was a porn star from the United States of America. In his adult film career, most of the films he did were with other men. His career spanned from 1990 to 2018. He is quite famous in Japanese ‘Gachimuchi’ memes. Herrington was killed in a car accident in 2018.
This is not the first time a petition revolving around Herrington has been filed in Ukraine. A similar petition was filed in March to rename the Mayakovsky Square located in the city of Zaporozhye to ‘Billy Herrington Square.’
The controversies around the Catherine II statue
The monument of Catherine II in Odessa has been involved in multiple controversies. It was erected in 1900 by Yuri Meletevich Dmitrenko. However, it was removed in 1920 by order of the Bolsheviks. In 2007, it was restored by the Ukrainian authorities. However, the move was opposed by Ukrainian nationalists, including then-President Viktor Yuschenko.
Notably, Odessa used to be a fishing village for centuries. It was founded as a city by a decree of Catherine II in 1794. During the 19th century, it was considered to be the fourth-largest city in the Russian Empire. The predominating local language is still Russian in Odessa.
