GLR May-June 2023

FT: A number of openly LGBTQ people have fought for Ukraine against Russia. Do you believe this is one reason why attitudes have improved towards LGBTQ people? AK : Definitely. Iryna Sovsun MP, the only active supporter of the LGBTQ community in the Verkhovna Rada, said that some of her homophobic colleagues changed their minds towards LGBTQ people when their real par ticipation in the war became known. FT: Could you talk about some of the main projects the Nash Mir Centre is currently working on for the community? AK : Given the current situation, we cannot provide substantial financial assistance to the community, so we have focused our activi

marriage? AK : Beyond any doubt, it will eventually happen in the mid-term prospects. The task to adopt a law on civil registered part nership has been already included in ac tion plans of the Ukrainian government, and the recent decision of the ECHR [Eu ropean Court of Human Rights] in the case Fedotova and Others v. Russia left no place to evade this for the Ukrainian au thorities. The question is not whether, but how soon, same-sex couples will be al lowed to marry, and the trends are only be coming more favorable. This war attracted public attention to the problem around same-sex marriage, be causemany LGBTQ people are serving in the

Andrii Kravchuk. Photo by Finbarr Toesland.

ties on the advocacy of political and legislative change. This year, the Ukrainian parliament is to discuss two bills of crucial im portance: one on the criminalization of hate crimes, including on LGBTQ grounds, and the other on making civil-registered part nerships available for same-sex couples. Last May, my organization completed a survey on attitudes towards LGBTQ people in Ukraine. We repeated the questions we asked about six years ago, and it showed that current atti tudes of LGBTQ issues have improved radically. FT: When the war of aggression is over, do you think that LGBTQ people will gain equal rights in areas such as same-sex

Ukrainian army, and they have absolutely no protection. It’s quite understandable, for the general public, that you should protect the rights of your defenders. We try to use these possi bilities to work for the adoption of same-sex marriage—it’s one of the most important tasks. So we are working with our Minister of Internal Affairs on this. To make a donation to the LGBT Human Rights NASH SVIT Center, please visit the following link: https://gay.org.ua/en/donation/ Finbarr Toesland is a UK-based freelance journalist who has written for TheTimes , The Telegraph , BBC, Reuters, and other outlets.

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