Ukraine passes bill banning LGBTQ hate speech
"We hope our government will recognize LGBTQI people as equal as soon as possible."
A bill banning hate speech towards LGBTQ people has been voted for unanimously by Ukraine.
The media regulation bill was approved on 15 December in what one LGBTQ rights activist called “a big step for Ukraine”.
Olena Shevchenko, the chair of Ukrainian LGBTQ and intersex rights group Insight, also told The Washington Blade that, “We hope our government will recognize LGBTQI people as equal as soon as possible.”
It follows a commitment from President Volodymyr Zelensky that once the war with Russia is over, he would look at civil partnerships for gay couples.
He was responding to an online petition that exceeded 25,000 signatures calling for same-sex marriage and civil partnerships to be recognised in Ukraine after the sacrifices LGBTQ+ soldiers in the war against Russia.
Zelensky said at the time that “each citizen is an indivisible part of civil society, for whom all rights and freedoms fixed in the Constitution of Ukraine extend.” He added, “All people are free and equal in their dignity and rights.”
“The response is more positive than it could have been,” Inna Sovsun, a liberal Holos party member, wrote on Facebook.
The law cannot be changed at the moment due to the ongoing war.
As same-sex marriage is not recognised Ukrainian LGBTQ+ people do not have the automatic right to visit a hospitalised partner, claim the body of a partner killed in war or collect death benefits from the state.
Since 2015 employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has been banned in Ukraine. Zelensky also promised to continue fighting anti-LGBTQ discrimination when he met President Biden at the White House in 2021.
Comparatively, the situation for LGBTQ people in Russia is getting worse. President Putin recently approved an extension of the country’s ‘gay propaganda law’ which now bans any LGBTQ content for anyone. Previously, it only applied to minors.