Ukraine now bans discrimination against LGBT people

While the whole country is mobilized by the war between it and Russia, Ukraine has just taken measures in favor of its LGBT citizens. The Stop Homophobia association reports that on Thursday 15 December the Rada (Ukrainian parliament) in fact adopted a bill banning “discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity”. It thus complied with the measures required by the European Commission in the context of Ukraine’s accession process to the European Union.

The emergency of war

The adoption of this law could be the first step towards legalizing marriage for everyone in Ukraine. A request that the Ukrainian LGBT community has made all the more vocally since the beginning of the war against Russia. Indeed, in the event of the death of one of the two partners of a same-sex couple, the other does not benefit from any legal status which allows him to identify the body, nor to recover and bury it.

Last July, a petition that garnered at least 25,000 signatures forced Volodymyr Zlensky to take a stand on the issue. The Ukrainian president formulated a lukewarm response. He said earlier that in times of war it is impossible to change the country’s constitution, which defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman. But he also said this “democratic values ​​must guarantee the same rights for everyone, including the LGBT+ community”, leaving the door open for future legalisations. But this first victory which constitutes the law against LGBTIphobic discrimination encourages associations for the defense of LGBT rights not to give up. “We hope the government now commits to the recognition and equality of LGBTIQ+ people”Olena Shevchenko, president of Insight, a Ukrainian LGBT rights group, told al blade Washington.

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