Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people in Ukrainian may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Sexual and noncommercial sexual activity among adults in private is legal in Ukraine, but prevailing social attitudes are often described as intolerant of LGBT people and households headed by same-sex couples not eligible for the same legal protection available to couples the opposite sex.
In the 2010 European study, 28% of Ukrainians surveyed believed that LGBT individuals should live freely and as they pleased. A 2017 poll found that 56% of Ukrainians believe that gay and bisexual individuals should enjoy the same rights, marking a significant change in public opinion.
Video LGBT rights in Ukraine
Legality of same-sex sexual activity
As part of the Soviet Union, the Criminal Code prohibits same-sex sexuality. In 1991, the law was revised to better protect privacy rights. Currently, the law only deals with same-sex sexual activity when it involves prostitution, persons under the legal age of consent or non-voluntary behavior or public behavior that is perceived to violate public courtesy standards. Agreement age is 16, regardless of sexual orientation or gender.
Transgenderism is generally associated with homosexuality and is therefore prohibited. In 1992, the national Government revised its law on gender identity to allow, under medical approval, genital change operations and new personal identification.
Maps LGBT rights in Ukraine
Recognition of same-sex relations
Article 51 of the Constitution specifically defines marriage as a voluntary union between a man and a woman. There is no legal recognition for same-sex marriage, nor is there more limited recognition for same-sex couples. Law of Ukraine does not recognize by default all marriages are legally concluded in other jurisdictions (heterosexual and same-sex marriage).
On November 23, 2015, the Government approved an action plan to implement the National Strategy on Human Rights in the period to 2020, which includes a pledge to draft laws that create registered civil partnerships for same-sex couples and same-sex couples in 2017, among others. However, in early 2018, the Ministry of Justice stated that "the development and submission to the Government of the draft law on legalization of registered civil partnerships in Ukraine is unworkable" because "many appeals from regional councils, Church councils and other religious organizations".
Protection of discrimination and hate crime laws
After failing to get enough votes on 5 and 9 November 2015, the Ukrainian Parliament approves anti-discrimination laws that prohibit sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination at work on November 12, 2015. Similar legislation (the law would prohibit employers refusing workers on the basis of their sexual orientation) was postponed indefinitely on May 14, 2013. The law passed on 12 November 2015 is an EU requirement for Ukraine to progress in its application for visa-free travel to the Schengen Area. Prior to the bill vote, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman firmly spoke out against same-sex marriage.
There is a law of national hate crimes that can be interpreted as including sexual orientation and gender identity, but that has not yet been decided by the court.
In November 2016, the Ukrainian Parliament refused to reinstate the Istanbul Convention, the European hate crime law, because its reference to sexual orientation and gender violated what many Ukrainian lawmakers say as Christian basic values. The Convention aims to combat domestic violence and violence against women.
Gender identity and expression
Transsexuality is classified as a psychiatric disorder. Sex reimbursement operation is legal in Ukraine. Since December 2016, new identity documents were issued before the operation. Gender reimbursement operations are for people over 25 years old. After surgery is completed transgender people should go to psychiatric counseling for two years because transsexuality in Ukraine is classified as a psychiatric disorder. In August 2016, a Ukrainian court ordered changes requested by two trans men to their passports and all other documents without requiring them to undergo surgery.
In 2011, the Civil Code of Ukraine was changed and allowed for transgender people who had undergone surgery to change their names to better reflect their gender identity.
By 2014, seven people make gender changes and five receive new documentation.
Until December 2016, people with children under 18 and married persons can not change their gender. Previously, all applicants need permission from the Ministry of Health's special commission and need to spend 30 days in a mental hospital (usually placed in the same ward as a mentally ill patient) and need to be diagnosed with "transsexuality".
Adoption and parenting
Single people who are citizens of Ukraine regardless of sexual orientation are permitted to adopt, but same-sex couples are explicitly forbidden to adopt (Clause 211 of the Family Code of Ukraine). In addition, the user must be at least 15 years older than the adopted child, or 18 years older when adopting an adult. The law also states that people "whose interests conflict with the interests of the child" may not be adopters, but whether this provision ever applies to unknown gay adopters.
Additional restrictions placed on foreign users. Only married couples in different types of marriages registered are allowed to adopt children from Ukraine.
However, lesbian couples are given more access to parenting than men, because IVF and assisted insemination treatments are legal.
Military services
Military service for mandatory men in Ukraine. According to law, homosexuality is not the reason of liberation from the army. However, many young gay men try to avoid calls to military service because they are afraid of unlawful relationships and other difficulties. In addition, women are also allowed to serve.
Blood donor
In April 2016, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health enacted a new regulation governing blood donations, allowing gay and bisexual men to donate blood. Earlier, the Ministry of Health called "homosexuality" as a risky behavior that donors could not give blood.
Society
"I know a 19-year-old man who accidentally left his laptop lying around his house and his parents saw the message he sent to his girlfriend.For more than a year they did not let him out of the house to work or study, they just kept him inside for fear of shame, and that is a familiar story in Ukraine. "
Gay and bisexual sexual orientation and transgender identity remain the taboo subject in Ukraine. Most Ukrainians affiliated with the Orthodox or Catholic Church tend to see the role of homosexuality and non-traditional gender as signs of immorality. Prior to 25 May 2013 Kiev pride of the parade, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Filaret, stated that those who support LGBT rights will be condemned and Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church denounced homosexuality as a sin just the same as murder.
Beyond traditional religious teachings, most Ukrainians grow up with little, if any, comprehensive, public education based on facts about human sexuality in general, let alone sexual orientation and gender identity. Lack of sex education promotes a homosexual view as a dangerous social group, as a source of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS.
During the Soviet era, differentiated sexual relations from 'official' (heterosexual) were labeled as abnormal. Some remnants of the Soviet mentality, who saw sexual topics as taboo and even denied their existence, existed even today.
Today, there are often reports of abuse, even violence directed at LGBT people in Ukraine. Many LGBT people in Ukraine report feeling that they need to lie about their actual sexual orientation or gender identity in order to avoid being subjected to violent discrimination or harassment.
Biases motivate crime or hate crimes against people who LGBT often reported in the international press, and while such violence is illegal in Ukraine, there is a perception by people living in Ukraine and globally that such violence is often tolerated by the Government.. Ukrainian police hardly ever resist the attackers.
The intolerance and threat of force prevailing, pressing many LGBT people to remain in the closet, especially if they are community leaders who feel that their careers as politicians or celebrities will end if people know that they are part of the LGBT community.
While prevailing public attitudes are intolerant, the LGBT community of Ukraine has gradually become more visible and more politically organized since 1991. Much of this remains limited to important events in urban cities such as Kiev, but the issue of LGBT rights in Ukraine has been more openly debated, largely as a result of right-wing social and conservative socialist actions to classify any positive portrayal of LGBT or LGBT rights as pornography.
Once something in Ukraine is defined by law to be "pornographic", images, movies, television shows, songs or web pages are much more limited when it can be exhibited, seen or heard publicly. Although such pornographic restrictions are not unique to Ukraine, by setting discriminatory standards for what is meant by pornography, any support for LGBT rights, even if not sexually explicit, can only be seen openly or openly if the entire audience is of legal minimum age.
One of the major movements in opposition to LGBT rights in Ukraine is a "former gay" movement that believes that lesbian, gay or bisexual sexual orientation, or gender identity can be "cured" through therapy or religious programs. The largest group in Ukraine is the Love Against Homosexuality , which believes that LGBT people are "sexual deviants" that need to be healed. The organization regrets "heterosexual discrimination".
Lesbians, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals complained about an increase in attacks against them in the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine. Many volunteers taking refugees from the territory controlled by the People's Republic of Donetsk refused to accommodate LGBT people.
The Gay Alliance of Ukraine (??? - ????????????) was founded in 2009.
Freedom of expression and censorship
In 1999, former President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, stated that there is a more important issue than LGBT rights to be discussed in Parliament and that homosexuality is caused by mental illness or the influence of destructive foreign films.
In 2007, the leader of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights called the "obscene" gay man who had to stop. Another parliamentarian, namely parliamentarian Leonid Grach, has included homosexuality and lesbianism as state crimes must stop.
A bill that would make it illegal to talk about homosexuality in public and in the media and to import, distribute and broadcast video, photographs and audio products that "encourage homosexuality" (with up to five years in jail and a fine of up to 5,000 hryvnia Ukraine (616 US dollars)) was passed in the first reading in Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) on October 2, 2012. It is estimated that 20 community activists representing several organizations protested outside the Verkhovna Rada building during the vote. This law has not since passed the second parliamentary reading. On 4 October 2012, the second vote is scheduled for October 16th. This law is considered homophobic by the LGBT community and human rights organizations and denounced by them, Amnesty International, the European Union and the United Nations. The Venice Commission concluded in June 2013 that the bill "is inconsistent with the European Convention on Human Rights and international human rights standards". In January 2015, the bill was removed from the agenda.
A petition was later initiated by anti-gay groups, calling for "steps to be taken to stop the propaganda of homosexuality and to preserve family values". In March 2018, Ombudsperson Anti-Discrimination Ukraine removed the petition from the electronic petition section. At that time, the petition had received 23,000 signatures and support from various religious organizations. The Ombudsman described the petition as "anti-liberty", and abolished it because it "contained calls to limit human rights".
Housing conditions
In 1998, the first LGBT rights group was created. Our World is the center of the LGBT community and human rights advocacy organization. In 2008, the LGBT human rights organization of Ukraine merged to create a coalition, Ukrainian Association of Gay Organizations .
Pride parades and rallies
In September 2003, the first public pride parade, though small, was held in Kiev.
In May 2008, the LGBT Ukrainian group was banned marking International Day Against Homophobia after last-minute intervention by the authorities who told the organizers that because of the possibility of friction the program of events should be canceled. Roman Catholicism, Evangelical Christianity, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Eparchy of Christianity, Baptism, and Unity of Independent Orthodox Churches have called on local authorities to prohibit any action by sexual minority representation.
A May 2012, a gay pride parade of Kiev canceled by its participants because they are worried about their safety. Two gay rights activists were beaten and assaulted with gas by a group of youths after the pridegoers were evacuated by police escorts.
On May 23, 2013, an Ukrainian court met a petition by the Kiev city authorities to ban the holding of any event, other than as imagined by the program for the celebration of the Day of Kiev (in the central part of the city); in doing so de facto prohibits a parade of gay pride in Kiev planned for May 25. The event of pride was later changed to "a private event outside the central part of Kiev". On this day on a narrow lane near Pushkin Park and the Shuliavska metro station, about 50 people gather and line up. Among them, at least 10 are from Munich (Germany), including Deputy Mayor Hep Monatzeder, and some from Sweden. They marched under the protection of 1,500 police, 13 of about 100 anti-gay demonstrators were arrested and no physical violence took place. After an hour the protesters who participated in the parade were evacuated from the area. In an effort to avoid a revenge attack, they subsequently changed their clothes and changed the mode of transportation several times.
A procession organized by gay rights activists took place in central Kiev on January 11, 2014; recognizing Euromaidan protests.
Kiev gay pride rally was again canceled on July 5, 2014 after police failed to guarantee its protection. It will be a small march, closed several kilometers outside of Kiev. The Love Movement Against Homosexuality demands its annulment. On July 7, 2014, the Mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko has asked to cancel the pride of "I think that at this time, when the action of the battle progresses and many people died, held entertainment events not in accordance with the existing situation and I urge all these people not to do this.I think it will be wrong in the middle of this situation ". The "war action" called Klitschko is a post-truce ceasefire of War in Donbass.
On June 6, 2015, a second Ukrainian pride parade was held. The parade finished in less than half an hour. The amount of police protection far exceeds the number of pride participants. Place for parade is only disclosed to march participants who have registered on its website. During the parade, five policemen were injured in the clashes after unknown people attacked the march with smoke and rock bombs. A police officer is treated in intensive care. 25 anti-gay activists were arrested. Member of Parliament Svitlana Zalishchuk and Serhiy Leshchenko attended the parade along with Swedish Ambassador to Ukraine, Andreas von Beckerath, and other Western diplomats. Organizers urged pride participants to disperse themselves in small groups and not to use the Kiev Metro. On June 4, 2015, the mayor of Kiev Klitschko once again asked to cancel the arrogance by calling "the danger of provocation". On the other hand, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated on June 5, 2015 that there is no reason to prevent the march.
On June 12, 2016, the third Ukrainian pride parade, dubbed March Equality, was held in Kiev without incident. The 1,500-man parade lasts about half an hour and is guarded by more than 5,500 police officers and 1,200 members of the National Guard. 57 people were arrested for aggressive behavior.
On August 13, 2016, LGBT Equality March was held in Odessa. The 50-man parade lasts about half an hour and is guarded by over 700 police officers. Twenty people, who tried to break through the show, were arrested.
In May 2017, LGBT activists held a rally in the city of Kharkiv. 30 people attacked the participants and police, injuring two people.
On June 18, 2017, the fourth pride parade of Kiev, again dubbed March Equality, was held in Kiev without major incidents with 6 people arrested for trying to breach security guards.
On June 17, 2018, the fifth pride parade of Kiev, once again dubbed March Equality, was held in the city center. It lasted less than an hour and, according to the Kiev police attended by 3,500 people, while the organizers said there were at least 5,000 attendees. No serious incidents occurred during the parade. Clashes erupted when 150 right-wing protesters trying to block the route were dispersed by riot police. 57 protesters detained.
Attack on LGBT community
An Amnesty International expert in Ukraine has stated that "People have been beaten and in one case murdered because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity." Most of these crimes have not been properly investigated and left alone. "
On June 22, 2012, a man approached LGBT activist Taras Karasiichuk, saying, "Are you a fag?" and then kick it in the head and jaw. Human Rights Watch says the authorities should treat the incident as a racial crime.
On July 6, 2014, a group of 15-20 neo-Nazis attacked the gay club "Pomada" (Lipstick) in Kiev. The attackers wore camouflage and balaclava (ski mask) and threw smoke grenades and firecrackers.
On October 29, 2014, Kiev's oldest cinema, Zhovten, caught fire when a smoke grenade was thrown into it during a French film show Les Nuits d'à © à © tà © Å ©, which was featured as part of the LGBT program at the Molodist (youth) film festival. None of the approximately one hundred people present were injured. Police arrested two suspects, one of whom said that the intention was not to burn the building, but to make a protest against the LGBT-themed film.
Oleksandr Zinchenko, representative of the human rights group LGBT World Kita, stated on June 3, 2015 that 40 hate crimes have been committed against LGBT people in 2014 and that about 10 such crimes have occurred in 2015.
Gay people are being actively persecuted in areas controlled by the Donbass separatists.
Public opinion
In a nationwide survey of 2007 by the Institute of Sociology, 16.7% disagreed strongly and 17.6% disagreed with the following statement: Gay men and lesbians should be free to live their own lives as they wish . Only 30.2% agree strongly and agree with that statement. It is the lowest strongly agree and agree with statements from 24 countries under investigation.
In a December 2007 survey by Angus Reid Global Monitor, 81.3% of Ukrainian people surveyed said that homosexual relations were "never acceptable", 13% replied "sometimes acceptable" and 5.7% "acceptable". Of all the behaviors listed, homosexuality is seen as the third worst after shoplifting and drunk driving. In particular, more people view this as never acceptable than adultery (61.5% never, 29.3% occasionally), violations of traffic rules (70.2% never, 25.6% occasionally ), pollution (73.3% never, 22.4% occasionally), tax evasion (48.5% never, 37.5% occasionally), fraud for profit (48.3% never, 41.6% occasionally), as well as a list of other things including abortion, premarital sex, complaining to the authorities about a friend who has stolen something, etc.
In another Angus Reid Global Monitor survey, this one in June 2007, in the long list of possible social reforms in the country, same-sex marriage legislation only received 4.7% of the vote, the lowest so far (the next low was light medication, at 7 , 1%).
An opinion poll of the Gorshenin Institute in December 2010 stated that "Ukraine's attitude towards sexual minorities" was "Completely negative" to 57.5%, "Somewhat negative" to 14.5%, "Somewhat positive" to 10% and "Fairly positive" for 3%.
The May 2013 poll by GfK Ukraine found that 4.6% of respondents supported same-sex marriage and 16% supported other forms of recognition, while 79.4% opposed any form of recognition.
A 2015 summer survey by the British Council revealed that one in five Ukrainian youth would feel uncomfortable with having lesbian and gay people as friends.
On September 25, 2016, European scientific studies detected that Ukraine showed higher levels of homophobia than Albanians and Italians, justifying the central role of cultural differences in homophobic attitudes.
The Pew Research Center poll published in May 2017 showed that 9% of Ukrainians supported same-sex marriage, while 85% opposed it. According to polls, younger people are more likely than their parents to support same-sex marriage legal (11% vs 7%).
According to a 2017 poll conducted by the ILGA, 56% of Ukrainians agree that gay, lesbian and bisexual people should enjoy the same rights as straight people, while 21% disagree. In addition, 59% agreed that they should be protected from discrimination in the workplace. 20% of Ukrainians, however, say that people who are in same-sex relations should be accused of being criminals, while 55% disagree. As for transgender people, 60% agree that they should have equal rights, 58% believe they should be protected from employment discrimination and some 43% believe they should be allowed to change their legal sex.
Summary table
See also
- LGBT Rights in Europe
- Human rights in Ukraine
- Sexual orientation and military service
Note
References
External links
- HPLGBT, Ukrainian Civil Organization
- KyivPride2014
- Nash Mir, Ukrainian gay organization (in Ukrainian)
- One of Us, gay magazine Ukraine (in Russian)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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