LGBT+ rights in Ukraine are still a battleground

Earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine, Sophia and Sasha lived in Odessa: Sophia was a psychology pupil, whereas Sasha labored sometimes in quick meals eating places. They arrived on the LGBTQIA+ shelter in Chernivtsi in early March, and Sophia’s mom and 11-year-old sister joined them quickly after. “It is not all the time been straightforward to stay collectively,” Sophia admits.

“Mom is homophobic. I defined to her that this was an LGBTQIA+ shelter and that I had nothing else to supply. When she arrived from Kramatorsk, she struggled for a very long time to settle in, and by no means talked to anybody. There have been quite a lot of completely different folks right here: gays, lesbians, trans folks. Mum was in a little bit of a state, and took out her frustrations on me.”

“LGBTQIA+ folks proceed to be seen as deviants, as a risk to ‘conventional’ households, seen as the premise of the Ukrainian nation. The identical chorus as in Russia,” says Olena Shevchenko, the director of Perception, an NGO that runs the Chernivtsi shelter, amongst others.

Ukraine abolished the regulation criminalising homosexuality after gaining independence in 1991, however tolerance in the direction of the LGBTQIA+ group has not improved. New circumstances of harassment, stigmatisation and violence towards sexual minorities are nonetheless showing. Two years in the past, the NGO Nash Svit recorded 131 circumstances of discrimination and violence towards LGBTQIA+ individuals. Between 2012 and 2013, it reported 50 such circumstances.

Police Safety

The organisers of the primary ever Ukrainian Satisfaction march discovered themselves pressured to cancel the occasion for worry of their security. A yr later, in 2013, 50 folks marched via the streets of Kyiv below the safety of 1500 cops. Whereas there was no violence, contributors needed to change their technique of transport a number of occasions to keep away from confrontations with counter-demonstrators. In February 2014, rainbow flags had been seen flying on the Euromaidan protests. An LGBTQIA+ march had taken place earlier that yr.

Following the Revolution of Dignity (as Euromaidan is typically recognized), LGBTQIA+ rights, that are a obligatory situation for European integration, lastly appeared on the Ukrainian authorities’s desk. In 2015, the Ukrainian parliament launched the primary legislative change within the historical past of unbiased Ukraine relating to LGBTQIA+ folks: the Labour Code was amended to recognise the identical rights for all employees, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identification.

Nonetheless, these modifications exist solely on paper. The fact is far much less rosy: with the post-Euromaidan nationalist upsurge, public attitudes in the direction of LGBTQIA+ folks have deteriorated. Proper-wing political teams, leveraging the assist of a considerable chunk of the inhabitants resulting from their energetic position within the revolution, started to advertise a imaginative and prescient of the Ukrainian nation based mostly on conventional, conservative values.

LGBTQIA+ individuals started to be introduced as a risk to Ukrainian identification. The conflict within the Donbas and the annexation of Crimea has solely aggravated this development, as nationalist teams stoke hatred in the direction of representatives of minorities – anybody “outdoors the norm”.

Militarisation of society

With the conflict comes a militarisation of the entire society, resulting in the picture of conventional gender roles being bolstered. “Males are anticipated to take up arms to defend their nation, whereas girls are anticipated to depart the nation and search refuge with their youngsters. In a extremely pressurised society, anybody who deviates from this norm can count on to be excluded or discriminated towards,” explains Maryna Shevtsova, an LGBTQIA+ rights researcher.

Conflict reinforces hatred. Olena Shevchenko has skilled this first-hand: in April, she was pepper-sprayed on the road in Lviv whereas unloading humanitarian assist packages.  “The offenders have turn into extra aggressive,” she says. “They know they will not be prosecuted, everybody has gone to conflict.”

The invasion is a vital second for the LGBTQIA+ group: it’s a time to show our dedication, to turn into extra seen, in order that the state of affairs in 2014 is just not repeated.

Vera Chernihina, LGBTQIA+ activist

The LGBTQIA+ group is afraid of violence not solely from Ukrainians, but in addition, and particularly, from Russians. “Tales are circulating,” says Olena Shevchenko. “We all know that within the Donbass and Crimea LGBTQIA+ persons are being tortured, harassed and even murdered.”

For LGBTQIA+ activist Vera Chernihina, “a Russian occupation can be catastrophic for the motion. All of the work we’ve invested in combating for our rights can be for nothing. Earlier than the conflict, we labored with the police. I additionally met with European Union representatives many occasions. We might see that issues had been altering, that there have been increasingly folks on the marches.”

Discriminations towards trans girls

In keeping with some specialists, the positive aspects made by Ukrainian NGOs for LGBTQIA+ rights are already largely misplaced. Final Could, at a convention on the Worldwide Day towards Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a UN skilled on gender-based violence and discrimination, reported discrimination towards transgender girls through the evacuation of invaded areas: “they weren’t allowed to board the trains.”

Maryna Shevtsova has additionally heard about these incidents, but stays hopeful. She believes that Ukrainian society might be extra tolerant as soon as the conflict is over. “Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians at the moment are residing throughout Europe, involved with different cultures. I’m hopeful this may make some folks extra open to range.

A survey carried out final Could by the NGO Nash Svit on Ukrainians’ attitudes in the direction of the LGBTQIA+ group already reveals rising tolerance. In 2016, solely three % of respondents reported having a optimistic angle in the direction of LGBTQIA+ folks; in 2022, the determine is nearly 13 %. The share of individuals declaring a damaging angle in the direction of LGBTQIA+ folks has fallen from 60 to 38 %.

As for the European Union, not sufficient has been demanded of the Ukrainian authorities, writes Maryna Shevtsova in a 2020 article entitled Preventing “Gayropa”. The EU known as on the Ukrainian authorities to fight rising intolerance and homophobia and to punish hate crimes as early as 2015, however the Ukrainian legal code has nonetheless not been amended, because of the affect of the church and the spiritual foyer. Furthermore, a number of the extra conservative components of Volodymyr Zelensky’s pro-European centrists, Servant of the Individuals (SN), have additionally declared themselves hostile to LGBTQIA+ equality, and defend “conventional” household values.

Marriage equality?

In 2020, MPs Heorhiy Mazurashu and Olena Lys proposed a draft regulation “Combating Gay and Transgender Propaganda” that bears placing similarities to the homophobic regulation handed in Russia in 2013. Human rights defenders, LGBTQIA+ activists and the Ukrainian parliament’s Human Rights Commissioner have condemned the doc – in contrast to President Zelensky. Certainly, to the nice disappointment of the LGBTQIA+ group, Zelensky has by no means taken a transparent stand in favour of their trigger.

Some activists, together with Olena Shevchenko, stay sceptical about current guarantees to introduce marriage equality. “We’ve been ready for a change within the regulation for years. We anticipated extra concrete motion from Zelensky. The president merely stated that everybody ought to have the identical rights, nothing extra. He could not give you something higher than this lamentable banality.”

Regardless of their difficulties, the LGBTQIA+ group continues to combat for his or her rights, in addition to their nation: in response to the survey carried out in Could by Nash Svit, virtually 66 % of respondents assist the participation of LGBTQIA+ folks within the defence of their nation towards the Russian invasion.

LGBTQIA+ persons are already recognized to have fought within the Donbas, remembers Vera Chernihina. “There’s even a particular battalion of sexual minority fighters, in uniforms adorned with unicorn insignias. In 2019, they participated within the Kyiv delight march. The invasion is a vital second for the LGBTQIA+ group: it’s a time to show our dedication, to turn into extra seen, in order that the state of affairs in 2014 is just not repeated. Again then, folks stated the one proper we had was to maintain quiet, as a result of we did not take part in Euromaidan. This isn’t true, although we weren’t seen. So folks had good motive to harass us. The reasoning was: ‘we participated within the conflict, you did not, so you possibly can’t ask for extra rights, as a result of you aren’t actual Ukrainians’.”

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