LGBT Gains in Ukraine Are in Danger

Ukraine just passed some surprisingly

progressive LGBT protections but they
might not last longer than a few weeks.

BY MATTHEW SCHAAF-NOVEMBER 17, 2015

LGBT rights have long been a contentious issue in the countries of the former Soviet
Union, where homosexuality was a crime until the early 1990s. Despite the best efforts
of a dedicated minority of LGBT activists and their supporters, lawmakers in Russia
are considering a ban on public displays of LGBT identity. In Kyrgyzstan, leaders are
considering a law that could send anyone to jail for so-called propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations.
But
Ukraine was supposed to be different.
Ukraine was supposed to be different. The countrys 2013 Euromaidan revolution,
commonly referred to as the Revolution of Dignity, threw out the corrupt Yanukovych
regime and installed a new and ostensibly more reform-minded government, which

promised to bring the country in line with European standards and values. With many
of the old guard still in power, reforms have been slow in coming. But, since the
European Union requires workplace protections for sexual orientation and gender
identity as a precondition for instituting visa-free travel, Ukraines vocal community of
LGBT activists were confident that the country would soon move beyond the
homophobic and transphobic discrimination that still pervades.
And indeed, last week after several attempts Ukraines parliament passed an
amendment to the labor code that bans discrimination based on race, disability, and a
host of other characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity. This
seemed like a big win, both for human rights and for Ukraines prospects of European
integration. The amendment promises Ukrainians protection from discrimination that
citizens of many other countries, including the United States, do not enjoy. But in fact,
this victory may not be what it seems. As soon as the vote was cast, opponents of
LGBT rights began scheming to water down or do away with these new protections. If
they succeed, the new rights LGBT Ukrainians have won might not last longer than a
few weeks.
Ukraine is still a conservative country in which outbreaks of anti-LGBT violence are all
too common.This summer, the KyivPride March for Equality was violently attacked by
right-wing thugs wielding improvised explosives. In a 2011 survey of LGBT people
conducted by the Ukrainian LGBT rights group Nash Mir, 89 percent of those who had
come out reportedexperiencing discrimination or human rights abuses in the previous
three years.
Even many of the countrys most reform-minded politicians are unable to accept that
LGBT people deserve the same rights as everyone else. Vitaliy Klitchko, the Mayor of
Kiev and a regular presence on Maidan square throughout the
revolution, urged KyivPride activists to cancel the 2015 March of Equality
demonstration. While President Poroshenko has boldly acknowledged that LGBT
people have the same constitutional rights as anyone else, including the right to
peacefully assemble, many other leaders loudly insisted that LGBT people should
keep their identities in their bedrooms where they belong. The Right Sector, a rightwing nationalist movement that emerged during the Euromaidan
protests, threatened to deal with this evil by sending thousands of its supporters to
break up the march.
As the deadline to meet the EUs workplace discrimination requirements approached
last week, politicians, commentators, and activists clashed about the controversial
legislation, pointing fingers at each other, either for caving to the EU and abandoning
Ukraines traditional values, or for destroying Ukrainians dreams of integrating with
Europe. Civic activists organizing on Facebook took to the streets under the banner
Dont Fuk With US! to demand that parliamentarians do their job and pass the laws
necessary to satisfy EU requirements but displayed discomfort with the visibility of
LGBT activists who arrived with rainbow flags. In the end, after failed attempts on

November 5 and 10, and six roll-call votes on November 12, each of which inched
closer to the necessary threshold of 226, the anti-discrimination amendment finally
passed on November 12 just barely with 234 votes.
But the battle between competing visions of Ukraines future a liberal, pro-European
Ukraine or a more conservative, religious one continues unabated. In an odd twist,
the amended labor law is already due to be replaced in a few weeks with a newer
version that has been in development for over a year. The new labor code does not
include the comprehensive anti-discrimination provision that was recently passed, and
must be amended before passage in order for these protections to continue. After the
recent amendments were passed, opponents of LGBT rights argued that the
protections were only temporary, and began scheming for ways to water down the
language or keep it out of the new labor code altogether. In effect, the recent vote will
have given the appearance that Ukraine had fulfilled its promises to the EU while
failing to permanently institute the required protections.
Ironically, the deep religious values of Ukraines largely Catholic westernmost Galicia
have prevented some of the countrys most pro-European political forces from
supporting the pro-LGBT amendment. On November 12, Archbishop Yevstratiy Zorya
of Chernihiv and Nizhyn expressed his strong opposition to LGBT rights in a
sardonic Facebook post, criticizing an unwillingness to compromise among
proponents of the anti-discrimination protections and comparing the debate to the
repression of the church under Soviet rule.
In response, Anna Romanova, a legislator from the pro-reform Samopomich party,
which is strongest in the region, noted that the law would exist for only a month, until
the new labor code is in place. In a statement on the partys website, Oleh Bereziuk,
another Samopomich deputy, opposed clear separation between church and state and
voiced support for the churchs superior, democratic and humanitarian approach to
protecting human rights and freedoms. Bereziuk and Romanova both said that their
party would introduce an amendment more acceptable to religious leaders to the new
labor code.
Other opponents of LGBT rights have proposed watering down the language of the
recently-passed amendment with meaningless and ineffective variants. In
a statement issued by Patriarch Filaret, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev
Patriarchate) suggested a compromise that would adequately protect everyone from
discrimination in the workplace and maintain harmony in Ukrainian society. In his
statement, he proposed changing the language of the labor code to ban discrimination
on the basis of attitude towards sexual relations instead of the internationallyaccepted term, sexual orientation and gender identity. His proposed term reduces
nuanced questions of gender and sexual orientation to just sex and has no clear
definition, raising questions about whether it would provide effective protection from
anti-LGBT discrimination.
Yet another group of deputies from the Opposition Bloc, which is effectively the
successor to former President Yanukovichs Party of Regions, hasproposed removing

the new anti-discrimination protections altogether, justifying their opposition

to violations of procedural norms during the voting process.
Even among those who voted for the amendment, support has been tepid. Another
Samopomich legislator, vice-speaker of the Rada Oksana Syroyid, raised doubtsthat
the EU was really going to allow Ukrainians to cross its borders without visas. She
referred to the anti-discrimination amendment as a Potemkin Village, meant to
distract attention from the real reason that [Ukraine] will almost certainly not get a
visa-free regime with the EU which she claimed was due to Ukraines lack of
control over its borders, corruption, and other challenges.
Its clear that the new LGBT protections are in danger.The question, then, is how to
save them. With widespread antipathy among the Ukrainian public towards LGBT
rights, EU pressure was a key ingredient of the recent victory. And it is continued
pressure from the EU that will now be necessary to preserve this important step
forward for human rights. The EU must reject any gimmicks, whether a temporary or
watered-down ban on discrimination. The carrot of EU visa liberalization will help
Ukrainian leaders make Ukraine a more pluralistic and democratic country one
where LGBT people can get a job or walk down the street without fear of
discrimination or violence, and where LGBT rights and religious freedom are viewed
as complementary rather than contradictory. The U.S. and Ukraines other friends
should insist that the country justify its place among European democracies with real
reforms. These efforts will reinforce the efforts of Ukrainian civil society to promote
positive change. Without this pressure, not only LGBT rights protections, but reforms
across the board, may fail. And that would leave Ukraine with a very uncertain future.
In the photo, Ukrainian LGBT activists rally in front of the parliament in Kiev during a
hearing on November 10, 2015.
Photo credit: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
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