{"id":1981,"date":"2024-07-21T19:56:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-21T19:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gay.org.ua\/en\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2025-11-27T16:14:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T13:14:28","slug":"lgbtq-situation-in-ukraine-in-january-june-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gay.org.ua\/en\/blog\/2024\/07\/21\/lgbtq-situation-in-ukraine-in-january-june-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBTQ situation in Ukraine in January – June 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” _i=”0″ _address=”0.0″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_post_title author=”off” date_format=”j F, Y” comments=”off” featured_image=”off” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ title_all_caps=”off” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” parallax=”on” parallax_effect=”on” module_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” parallax_method=”off”]<\/p>\n
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The publication presents information reflecting the social, legal and political situation of LGBTQ persons in Ukraine in the first half of 2024: it provides the data and an analysis of the situation with the protection of LGBTQ people’s rights and interests in legislation, their role in social and political life, the attitude of the general public, examples of incidents based on intolerance on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. <\/p>\n
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In the first half of 2024, no noticeable changes were made in the legislation regarding the protection of LGBTQ rights in Ukraine. Consideration of Bill 9103 on registered civil partnerships is blocked by ultra-conservative members of the Verkhovna Rada, who refer to the position of leading Ukrainian churches. At the same time, the Ukrainian government is trying to advance the adoption of Bill 5488 on amendments to anti-discrimination and criminal legislation as a part of the process of Ukraine\u2019s European integration.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nAdvocacy for the adoption of these draft laws, direct aid to LGBTQ people affected by the Russian aggression, and support for the Ukrainian military remain the main issues for the Ukrainian LGBTQ movement. For the first time since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the Equality March took place in Kyiv though being rather limited due to security reasons. Meanwhile, it seems that the intensification of the public activities of the LGBTQ movement and its allies increased the activity of its aggressive opponents \u2014 ultraconservative and rightist radical groupings. More incidents of homo \/ transphobic threats and attacks were documented in the first half of 2024 than in all of 2023.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSociological surveys, however, demonstrate that the attitude of Ukrainian society towards LGBTQ people is slowly but surely continuing to improve. At the same time, the leading Ukrainian churches consistently declare their irreconcilable homo \/ transphobic attitude towards their LGBTQ fellow citizens, which is no different from the ideology of the Russian World and repeats the theses of its propaganda in this area.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n1. Generalized socio-political situation<\/strong><\/h3>\nLegislation and judiciary<\/strong><\/h5>\nIn the first half of 2024, no noticeable changes were made in the legislation regarding the protection of LGBTQ rights in Ukraine. Two main draft laws in this area \u2014 9103 (on the introduction of registered partnerships available to same-sex couples) and 5488 (on changes to anti-discrimination and criminal legislation) \u2014 still have not been considered by the parliament.<\/p>\n
While consideration of Bill 9103 was not even included in the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada\u2019s current session, the situation with Bill 5488 is somewhat better: like the previous year, it is scheduled for consideration. However, it should be noted that both of these documents were scheduled for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada in 2023, yet this did not happen. The chances for the adoption of Bill 5488 have increased slightly due to the fact that in the government’s \u201cReport on the initial assessment of the progress in the implementation of the European Union legal acts (EU acquis)\u201d, adopted in December 2023, such a step is defined as a \u201cpriority task\u201d within the implementation of Council Framework Decision 2008\/913\/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law.<\/p>\n
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has updated the procedure for the assignement and payment of one-time money benefit after the death of military personnel in accordance with the law \u201cOn amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the assignement and payment of one-time money benefit\u201d adopted last December. Now the members of the deceased’s family who can receive such payments also include \u201ca woman (man) with whom deceased person lived as a family but were not in marriage with this person or in any other marriage, provided that this fact has been established by a court decision that took legal force.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, this means that now same-sex partners of deceased soldiers will be able to receive such financial benefit. This, however, does not cancel discriminatory attitude of the state towards same-sex partners: unlike spouses, they will have to prove the fact of their family relationship in court. It is also unclear whether the partner of the deceased is exempt from taxation of this money benefit, as is provided for other family members.<\/p>\n
On April 11, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights made the decision in Karter v. Ukraine<\/em> case, in which it recognized that the investigation and punishment of hate crimes based on sexual orientation as ordinary crimes, without taking into account the motives of intolerance, is a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment) in conjunction with Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination).<\/p>\nState and law enforcement agencies, local self-government<\/strong><\/h5>\nMinister of Justice Denys Malyuska said that he is \u201cmaximally positive\u201d about the introduction of registered civil partnerships, but believes that there is still no \u201csocial compromise\u201d on this issue in Ukraine, so it is necessary to continue communication with the conservative part of the parliament and society. According to him, he agreed with the authors of Bill 9103 that, unless this document is adopted by the Verkhovna Rada, the Ministry of Justice will introduce its own compromise draft law to the parliament. Neither the defenders of LGBTQ rights nor their opponents will like this document, but, according to the minister, it will have a chance of success.<\/p>\n
Among all government departments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has always demonstrated the most consistent position on the protection of LGBTQ people\u2019s rights, but its activity in this area has significantly increased after the Council on Human Rights, Gender Equality and Diversity was formed under it. Zoryan Kis , a well-known Ukrainian LGBTQ activist who is now an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was appointed as its secretary. On the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia \/ Transphobia (May 17), this Council announced a call for projects aimed at protecting the human rights of women and LGBTQI+ people, and held a special meeting dedicated, in particular, to advocacy for the adoption of Bills 9103 and 5488.<\/p>\n
Similarly, in 2024 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs became the only government department to express its symbolic support for Pride Month (May-June) by painting its logo on the X social network in rainbow colors. The Embassy of Ukraine in Hungary joined the statement of representatives of foreign countries and international organizations before the 29th Budapest Pride, in which they expressed support for the LGBTQ community and condemned its persecution by the Hungarian government.<\/p>\n
Several other state institutions also symbolically supported the Ukrainian LGBTQ community during the Pride Month, namely the Ukrainian Institute (it represents Ukrainian culture in the world and forms a positive image of Ukraine abroad), the Ukrainian Cultural Fund (it contributes to the development of national culture and art), the Ukrainian Youth Fund (it supports youth initiatives and performs certain tasks in the field of youth policy), Ukrposhta (the state-owned and largest postal service in Ukraine).<\/p>\n
Following a complaint from a representative of Nash Svit Center, the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting (shortened as “the National Council”), which performs the functions of the national media regulator, issued an order to the public organization Movement \u201cAll Together!\u201d for publishing the article \u201cLGBT Movement and Pedophilia: Historical Connection\u201d on its website. The National Council recognized the violation by the organization \u201cAll Together!\u201d requirements of of Article 36 (Part One, Paragraph 3) of the law \u201cOn Media\u201d (\u201cOn the territory of Ukraine, in the media and on platforms for shared access to video, it is prohibited to distribute […] expressions that incite discrimination or oppression against individuals or groups of persons on the basis of […] sexual orientation, gender identity\u201d) and obliged it to eliminate the detected violations. On March 14, the movement \u201cAll together!\u201d appealed this order of the National Council in the Kyiv District Administrative Court \u2014 the court has not yet issued a decision on this case.<\/p>\n
The National Council also posted a statement on its Internet resources dedicated to the International Day against Homophobia \/ Transphobia (May 17), in which it emphasized the importance of observing the principles of equality and non-discrimination in the media space and reminded that hate speech, propaganda of discrimination and incitement of hatred (in particular, towards LGBTQ people) in the media is prohibited.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets and his office in their activities paid due attention to issues of protecting the rights of LGBTQ people. In particular, in his annual report on the state of observance and protection of human and citizen rights and freedoms in Ukraine in 2023, the Ukrainian Ombudsman once again emphasized the need to adopt amendments to anti-discrimination and criminal legislation and a law on registered civil partnership (which is provided, respectively, in Bills 5488 and 9103).<\/p>\n
A number of LGBTQ activists, including a representative of Nash Svit Center, joined the newly created Expert Council on Equal Rights, Prevention of Discrimination, Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking under the Representative of the Commissioner for Equal Rights and Freedoms, Rights of National Minorities, Political and Religious Views. In January 2024, the Representative of the Ombudsman \u00a0Mykhailo Spasov sent a letter to the head of the Chernivtsi Oblast Council Oleksii Boiko, in which he recommended \u201crefraining from actions and decisions in the activities of the Chernivtsi Oblast Council that could be considered as prejudiced against LGBTIQ people\u201d after, at late 2023, this council adopted an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada with a call not to adopt Bill 9103.<\/p>\n
For the first time in recent years, since the beginning of 2024 such public appeals by local councils to the Ukrainian state authorities have not been noticed.<\/p>\n
Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine at various events have consistently emphasized the need to adopt Bill 5488 aimed at combating discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes, in particular, based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Thus, at the meeting-seminar held in Uzhhorod in March 2024 by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience within the framework of the project \u201cSupporting the implementation of European standards on combatting discrimination and the rights of national minorities in Ukraine\u201d for representatives of state and regional authorities, public organizations and national communities, a heated discussion broke out on this occasion. Lyudmila Tymoshchuk, a representative of the Department on Human Rights Observation Monitoring of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, explained to the participants of the event that this draft law is not aimed at protecting any particular social groups \u2014 it offers equal protection to all citizens of Ukraine, regardless of their nationality, skin color, language, religious, political or other beliefs, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, place of residence, etc.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the National Police was generally effective in protecting not numerous public LGBTQ events from homo \/ transphobic violence \u2014 notably the Sunny Bunny Queer Film Festival and the Kyiv Equality March.<\/p>\n
Although the organizers of the Equality March 2024, which took place in Kyiv for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, had some problems with the city authorities and the police, they managed to find a common language. On the eve of the march, the Kyiv City State Administration and personally the First Deputy Head of the KCSA Mykola Povoroznyk publicly called on the citizens of Kyiv and guests of the city to demonstrate tolerance and mutual respect, and ensured its successful conduct.<\/p>\n
Politics, mass media and society<\/strong><\/h5>\nIn 2023, the head of the ruling party \u201cServant of the People\u201d Olena Shulyak became one of MPs who initiated Bill 9103 on the introduction of registered civil partnership in Ukraine available to same-sex couples. In 2024, among Ukrainian politicians, she and members of parliament from Holos (\u201cVoice\u201d) party Inna Sovsun and Dmytro Gurin were the most active advocates of this document, as well as Bill 5488 on combatting discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes. They constantly participated in various events on this matter, gave interviews to the mass media, published materials on their own and party Internet resources.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of Ukrainian politicians, however, simply ignored these issues. Some of them, on the contrary, tried in every way to prevent the consideration and adoption of these bills, arguing this with their own beliefs and \/ or the position of Ukrainian churches \u2014 particularly, Ihor Friz MP (\u201cServant of the People\u201d). In an attempt to increase the chances of Bill 9103 to be adopted, its initiators tried to change the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada, which is supposed to preliminarily consider this document, from the current Committee on Legal Policy to the Committee on Integration of Ukraine into the European Union, but, due to the opposition of Ihor Friz and other homophobic members of the Committee on Legal Policy, they did not succeed.<\/p>\n
Yulia Tymoshenko and her Batkivshchyna party, who last year decided to increase their popularity by promoting homo \/ transphobic ideology, refrained from discussing this topic in the public space, but in parliamentary activities they consistently took ultra-conservative positions.<\/p>\n
The main political enemies of the LGBTQ community \u2014 radical nationalist and ultraconservative organizations and individual activists \u2014 have been very little visible in Ukrainian politics in recent years, but, apparently due to a certain increase in the public activity of the Ukrainian LGBTQ movement in 2024, they have also become more active, trying to hinder various activities related to LGBTQ issues. In particular, unknown persons painted the facade of Zhovten cinema in Kyiv, where the film \u201cLessons of Tolerance\u201d was scheduled for screening, with homophobic inscriptions and nationalist symbols, and in Kharkiv a group of youths tried to disrupt the screening of this film with the same slogans and symbols.<\/p>\n
Very revealing was the counter-march to the Kyiv Equality March, which took place on June 16, 2024. The alternative \u201cMarch for the Protection of Family and Tradition\u201d was organized by the journalist and Pentecostal preacher Ruslan Kukharchuk, who has long been a central figure in the homophobic movement of Ukraine. However, this time he failed to mobilize for this event its traditional audience \u2014 families of conservative Protestants and representatives of leading Ukrainian churches \u2014 so the main contingent of the march, supposedly dedicated to family values, consisted of several hundred very young men under the banners of the far-right organizations known for its aggressiveness who hid their faces under balaclavas. Thus, for the first time, the Ukrainian \u201cmovement for the traditional family\u201d openly united with far-right radicals.<\/p>\n
At the same time, it became noticeable that some right-wing radical activists softened their attitude towards their LGBTQ fellow citizens. In particular, Olena Bilozerska, a well-known and popular activist of the nationalist movement, journalist, blogger, and military officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in fact completely renounced homophobic rhetoric and demonstrated an understanding of same-sex family partners\u2019 problems in her internet posts. At early 2024, the Mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk Ruslan Martsinkiv, a member of the right-nationalist Svoboda party, known for his repeated statements that a gay cannot be a Ukrainian patriot, unexpectedly, answered extremely evasively to another journalist’s question about his attitude towards the LGBTQ community: \u201cI love all people. I pray for them. The Lord said to pray even for enemies. [\u2026] A Christian cannot do otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
A loud public scandal broke out over the decision of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church \u2013 Kyiv Patriarchate \u00a0to deprive the famous Ukrainian LGBTQ activist, the head of the LGBTQ military association, Viktor Pylypenko of his award. Once the head of this micro-church, Patriarch Filaret, who is also the founder and Patriarch Emeritus of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, awarded Viktor Pylypenko, along with other servicemen of his unit, with the UOC-KP medal \u201cFor Courage and Love to Ukraine\u201d \u2014 yet, when the church administration found out that Pylypenko is an atheist and an LGBTQ activist, they canceled this award with the wording \u201cwe do not share his sinful preferences and LGBTQ agitation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such a decision caused a storm of emotions and almost unanimous condemnation in the mass media and social networks \u2014 in particular, it was strongly condemned by the aforementioned Olena Bilozerska. Several other military refused their own awards, which they received from the UOC-KP, as a sign of protest. In their opinion, it was not the church that did them honor, but they supported the authority of this dubious church and its even more odious patriarch, agreeing to receive a reward from them, but after such an act they no longer want to have anything to do with them.<\/p>\n
During the Pride Month, similar to the previous year, many Ukrainian businesses, mass media, and cultural institutions repainted their logos in rainbow colors as a sign of support for LGBTQ \u2014 in particular, such large and well-known ones as mobile phone operators Vodafone and Lifecell, the shopping network for electronics and household appliances Comfy, Novyi and Kyiv TV channels, the Odesa National Art Museum, and the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv.<\/p>\n
It did not attract significant attention from the mass media and general public except the Ukrainian Literary Gazette which republished the article \u201cHow the Khanenko Museum and the Odesa Museum are turning into a closed propaganda cluster\u201d from the website of the homophobic movement \u201cAll Together!\u201d headed by the above-mentioned Ruslan Kukharchuk. Likewise, a homophobic post with a link to this article was published on the official Facebook page of the National Writers\u2019 Union of Ukraine. Probably, both of these publications reflect the personal position of Mykhailo Sydorzhevskyi , who is the editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian Literary Gazette and the head of that Union \u2014 it is known that he professes ultra-conservative and radical-nationalist views. After that, several members of the Writers\u2019 Union announced their resignation from this organization, and the executive producer and host of the Public Radio, Ana More, filed a complaint against the Ukrainian Literary Gazette to the Commission on Journalistic Ethics.<\/p>\n
In fact, today in Ukraine exactly the website of the movement \u201cAll Together!\u201d has become a principal source of openly anti-LGBTQ publications full of manipulation, distortion, and ultra-conservative propaganda rhetoric. The rest of the homo \/ transphobic (mostly religious) resources rarely publish their own material of this kind, preferring to share articles from this site. Ruslan Kukharchuk and his unknown assistants closely monitor LGBTQ-related news and promptly react to them \u2014 for example, to the proposal of Anton Drobovych, the Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, not to dismantle the infamous Kyiv Arch of Peoples\u2019 Friendship (a monument of the Soviet era) but to paint it in rainbow colors, giving it a different meaning \u2014 a symbol of the LGBTQ community or just a rainbow over the water, as it already happened during Eurovision 2017.<\/p>\n
This idea caused violent indignation of Ruslan Kukharchuk but a completely calm and somewhat ironic reaction from the general public. A public opinion survey conducted in May 2024 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology on behalf of Nash Svit Center once again confirmed the conclusions of similar surveys of 2023 and 2022: the attitude of Ukrainian society towards LGBTQ people is mostly neutral or friendly, and in recent years it has been slowly but steadily improving.<\/p>\n
In particular, the number of those who believe that LGBT people should have the same rights as other citizens of Ukraine in 2024 amounted to 70.4% that is 3.1% more than in 2023 and 6.7% more than in 2022. Even among those who generally have a negative view of LGBT people, more than half (51%) agreed that they should have equal rights.<\/p>\n
The introduction of registered civil partnership for same-sex couples in 2024 was supported by 28.7% of respondents, 25.6% were indifferent to it, and 35.7% were against. Thus, already more than a half of Ukrainians have no objections to this. If two years ago the gap between those who support civil partnership for same-sex couples and those who do not like it constituted 18.3% in favor of the latter, then in 2024 it decreased to 7%.<\/p>\n
Churches and religious organizations<\/strong><\/h5>\nAs in several previous years, in 2024 the leading Ukrainian churches joined in the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (hereinafter abbreviated as AUCCRO) almost did not touch on LGBTQ issues in their public activities. However, according to the testimonies of MPs who support Bills 5488 and 9103, they still retain significant influence over Ukrainian legislators in their efforts to block the adoption of any documents that would protect equal rights for LGBTQ people.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian churches do not share any softening of anti-LGBTQ attitudes seen among their co-religionists in the West \u2014 in particular, the head of the OCU Metropolitan Epiphany rejected a suggestion to take a cue from Pope Francis, who allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, pointing out that even the Roman and Greek Catholic bishops of Ukraine do not support this position of the Pope.<\/p>\n
Having almost stopped homophobic propaganda of their own production, Ukrainian religious resources, especially Protestant ones, continue to spread extremely manipulative materials from the website of the leading homophobic movement \u201cAll together!\u201d which violate all norms of journalistic ethics. Similar to Russian propaganda, these materials give the reader a completely false impression of Ukraine as a \u201cleftist\u201d country, where freedoms of speech and religion are grossly violated in favor of \u201cpropaganda of homosexuality\u201d and \u201cgender ideology,\u201d and defenders of \u201ctraditional values\u201d are subjected to repressions.<\/p>\n
An unexpected effect of this for the Ukrainian churches was that certain of their Western colleagues \u2014 mainly ultra-conservative Protestants in the United States \u2014 believed Russian propaganda supported by similar statements from the Ukrainian side that significantly undermined support for Ukraine among American conservatives. Particularly because of this, since the beginning of 2024 the AUCCRO and representatives of concrete churches had to hold a series of meetings with representatives of conservative religious and political circles in the USA, at which they tried to dispel the negative effect of their own homo \/ transphobic propaganda and provide critical support for Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression from the last ones.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the AUCCRO did not give up the use of homophobic propaganda clich\u00e9s, protesting against the Equality March in Kyiv as a part of a \u201cleft-radical political movement that is a continuation of Marxism of the past\u201d and characterizing legislative proposals aimed at protecting LGBTQ rights as \u201claws that would promote spreading sin of debauchery and immorality in Ukrainian society.\u201d<\/p>\n
LGBTQ community<\/strong><\/h5>\nPromoting resistance to Russian aggression and survival in war conditions remained the main issues for the Ukrainian LGBTQ movement in the first half of 2024. Thanks to international aid, LGBTQ organizations were able to support the activities of shelters for forced migrants, provide direct material, financial and psychological assistance to victims of military operations.<\/p>\n
Advocacy for the adoption of legislation aimed at protecting the rights of LGBT people \u2014 primarily Bills 5488 and 9103 \u2014 as well as legal assistance to victims of homo \/ transphobic discrimination and violence remained another important area of the LGBTQ movement\u2019s activity.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of public LGBTQ actions, as in the previous year, aimed to draw public attention to LGBTQ people defending the country from Russian aggression within the Ukrainian army, and the specific problems they face due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. In February 2024, Kharkiv Pride announced that the advertising holding Megapolis, without any explanation, stopped communication regarding the information campaign in support of LGBTQ military planned by KharkivPride together with the public organization Rizni.Rivni (\u201cDifferent.Equal\u201d). This campaign, in the form of placing portraits of military personnel and their stories on advertising planes in Kyiv and Kharkiv, was conducted later though.<\/p>\n
The placement of the symbolic \u201cShelter from Intolerance\u201d on Kyiv’s Independence Square, also at the initiative of the Rizni.Rivni platform, had a similar informational and advocacy nature. It was intended to draw the public’s attention to the issue of homo \/ transphobic violence and the need to adopt Bill 5488 aimed at overcoming this problem.<\/p>\n
Under the leadership of the well-known Kharkiv LGBTQ and feminist activist Anna Sharyhina, who temporarily headed KyivPride until the formation of a full-fledged new team, the first Equality March since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion was quite successfully held in the Ukrainian capital. For security reasons, it had a limited and closed nature \u2014 to participate in it, you had to register in advance, and the organizers from the very beginning focused on only about half a thousand participants. Despite its purely symbolic nature (the march was very brief), it attracted a lot of attention from the media, the LGBTQ community and its allies, as well as its opponents \u2014 ultra-conservative and right-wing radical organizations, which organized a counter-march under the slogan of \u201cprotecting family and tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The non-governmental organization \u201cUkrainian LGBTQ military for equal rights\u201d and individual military LGBTQ activists took an active part in advocacy campaigns to promote Bills 9103 and 5488, directly representing those who defend Ukraine from Russian aggression. As for military service itself, they testified to a generally tolerant attitude on the part of fellow soldiers and commanders, but indicated the presence of systematic discrimination against same-sex family partners by the state, which is especially painful during wartime, as well as individual cases of harassment and even violence connected with homo \/ transphobia still widespread in Ukrainian society.<\/p>\n
According to numerous testimonies of transgender persons, Ukrainian doctors have practically stopped making diagnoses of \u201ctranssexualism\u201d and \u201cgender dysphoria\u201d which can be grounds for removal from military registration. Obviously, there is no official ban on this, but doctors are now afraid that law enforcement agencies may pay attention to their practice, suspecting them of facilitating the evasion of conscripts from military service. There are still no clear medical and psychological criteria for the suitability or unfitness for military service of persons who have been given the mentioned diagnoses (code F.64 according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases of the 10th revision), so doctors bear full personal responsibility for their assessment of the condition of such persons. Thus, in fact, the official process of gender transition for trans*women in Ukraine is currently suspended.<\/p>\n
2. Violence, discrimination and other violations of LGBTQ people\u2019s rights<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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