LGBTIQ* in Ukraine

War has changed everything. The world as we knew it does not longer exist. The cooperation with our friends in Ukraine, once based on human rights work and intercultural exchange, had to find a new purpose.

Today, we collect donations for LGBTIQ* on the run; we provide emergency aid to queer people in need, we support LGBTIQ* organisations that host their community in shelters, supply food, clothes and medicine. And they do so under the most adverse conditions as many cities are under constant attack. With our actions and events, we draw attention to the situation of queer people in Ukraine. YOU CAN HELP HERE

What is the situation?

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and inter* people are afraid of Putin’s army. If the Russians take over, they fear, the occupiers could take action against them. Since 2013, Russia has been systematically fighting queer people with a law against so-called gay propaganda. In Chechnya, this has led to severe persecutions of gay men and trans* persons in 2017.

Where Russia has already taken over territory from Ukraine, victims report assaults. Many therefore go into hiding or flee. However, not everyone can simply pack and go: men* and those who identify as male are not allowed to leave the country due to the general mobilisation. Some take up arms to defend their country, and many among them are open about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity hoping that Ukraine’s getting more serious about their rights. Not all of them survive the deployment.

As a minority, LGBTIQ* are often traumatised due to their experiences of discrimination in a society that is still relatively homo- and transphobic. And – although acceptance towards LGBTIQ* has increased since 24 February – they are particularly vulnerable.

• Queer people cannot necessarily count on solid family structures. And their friendships have often been torn apart during the war. Many LGBTIQ* are isolated.
• They can be blackmailed by forced outing and have to fear for their job and housing. Fears of attacks and violence dominate their everyday life.
• Same-sex relationships and rainbow families are not legally recognised in Ukraine. In the case of injury or death, for example, this means authorities may not inform the surviving relatives. Couples on the run risk being separated.
• Men* and trans* persons read as men are not allowed to leave Ukraine due to the general mobilisation if they are between 18 and 60 years old. And they often have no money to get their documents changed fast due to job loss. Many are hiding in shelters.
• However, there are only a few shelters in Ukraine for queer people, which are run by a LGBTIQ* organisations. People who flee often end up in general shelters where they cannot come out and have to hide.
• The queer infrastructure with its counselling services in the big cities is partially destroyed. LGBTIQ* organisations work under difficult conditions.
• LGBTIQ* have special needs for medication like hormones or HIV treatment.
• In addition, the patriarchal, heteronormative structures in the police, the army and territorial defence can become a challenge for queer people.

Some fear now a radicalisation of the Ukrainian society that could bring new violence against LGBTIQ*. But many also hope for more solidarity as they all fight together against the one enemy. The situation is more than difficult.

Visibility and acceptance: these are the facts

And it is sad the more as the country was on the right track: before the Russian army invaded, queer people were more visible than ever. They defied the ignorance of large parts of the political establishment and the sometimes aggressive opposition of a few, but all the louder right-wing, religious and often pro-Russian groups, and won concessions from them. It’s actually been a success story.

The broad majority of people in Ukraine have become more and more open-minded over the years. This was suggested even before the outbreak of war, for example, by the study ‘What Ukrainians Know and Think About Human Rights: Assessing Change’ by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. Compared to 2016, the number of citizens who regard tolerance as a core value rose by six to 31 per cent in 2020. Fundamentally, more and more people had already come to understand that sexual minorities suffer particularly from discrimination (26.3 per cent).

“In fact, LGBTIQ* issues have not aroused particularly strong feelings among the general Ukrainian population recently”, says Andrii Kravchuk, one of the managers at the Human Rights organisation Nash Svit. People are open to discussion when it comes to sexual minorities.

And these are the plans

A recent study by Nash Svit confirms this. Accordingly, 70.4 per cent of all Ukrainians are now in favour of equal rights for LGBTIQ* people. In 2023, this figure was 67.3, and in 2022, 63.7 per cent.

Now, in the midst of the war, a member of parliament has introduced a bill for a civil partnership to strengthen the rights of LGBTIQ* people, especially in the war (see above). And President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised to consider it.

Nash Svit says the introduction of such a registered partnership was supported by 28.7 per cent of all Ukrainians in 2023, 25.6 per cent were indifferent to it, and 35.7 per cent against. That doesn’t sound like much support. But in fact, the gap between supporters and opponents has narrowed from 18.3 per cent in 2022 to seven per cent now. Looking at a longer period, in 2016 just five per cent of Ukrainians were in favour of same-sex marriages! Other surveys confirm this trend.

The demand for registered civil partnerships is not new. They have been part of the national human rights action plan since 2015, the implementation of which the country’s governments have repeatedly postponed. The action plan provides for comprehensive legislative proposals, including

• protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation/gender identity,
• registered partnerships for same-sex couples,
• new medical standards for trans* people,
• the codification (in the penal code) of hate motives as aggravating circumstances and
• the abolition of the ban on adoption for trans* and HIV-positive people.

So far, only a few of these have been implemented: Transition has been simplified, and protection against discrimination in the workplace has also been introduced under pressure from the EU. However, the action plan has not been discarded, but has become part of the Recovery Plan for Ukraine, which is pending for the reconstruction of the country after the end of the war.

One might think that the chances of more equality for LGBTIQ* -people are not so bad, actually.

Success thanks to the Pride movement

A major driving force behind this progress is the country’s Pride movement, alongside the many awareness campaigns and visible actions of Ukraine’s queer civil society. Every year since 2012, the community in Ukraine has tried to hold its own Pride to demonstrate for equal rights and acceptance of LGBTIQ* people, modelled on the Stonewall Uprising from 1969 in New York.

In 2013, under the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, a Pride was able to take place in Kyiv for the first time. 150 people marched outside the city, protected by the police and supported by guests from abroad (like Munichers). At the last Pride before the full-scale war, in 2021, thousands of people gathered in the city centre to protest. And among them were by no means only diplomats from foreign embassies and members of the LGBTIQ* community, but also numerous allies.

Kyiv Pride was initially controversial even within the community itself: according to a survey conducted by the market research institute Active Group in April 2017, a majority of Kyiv residents (57 per cent) rejected it; only 38 per cent were in favour. But then the number of allies grew. After Kyiv, more and more LGBTIQ* organisations began organising prides in other cities, including Odesa, Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv. Even during the war, some prides were able to take place.

Hope for equal rights and acceptance

In the long term, most LGBTIQ* activists believe that Ukraine’s opening to the West – especially as an EU candidate and perhaps as a member of NATO – will change the situation of the community and society as a whole for the better after the war. They say that the regime in Moscow, with its homo- and transphobic agenda, represents an outdated model of the ‘Russian world’ that Ukraine does not want to emulate.

Ukraine’s LGBTIQ* community has made a decisive contribution to opening up Ukrainian society in recent years while it was fighting for human rights. The war might put this all to an end if Ukraine’s not surviving.