How Ukrainian LGBT+ soldiers strike a blow against Kremlin

A 23-year-old student of the Kyiv Medical University, Oleksandr, unexpectedly became the subject of the story on the Kremlin channel rossiya-1. The program's rhetoric about the LGBT+ people serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine was openly homophobic. It is how military medic Oleksandr was outed. 

But the hour-long hissing of Kremlin propagandists didn't deteriorate Oleksandr's relations with his comrades. They continue to consult with him on medical issues.

Screenshot of the russian broadcast from September 2, 2022. 

Oleksandr defended the health of Ukrainian defenders in Kyiv, Irpin (Kyiv region), and Kharkiv region. Back in February, he filled out a questionnaire for the selection of volunteer medics from his medical university. The first task was to sort medicines for first-aid kits. 

"When a fellow student and I took them to the district administration, they grasped us there. There was a shortage of doctors. And they sent us to help the military," Oleksandr recalls. 

At the frontline, he saved a life for the first time. The sniper caught his rifle on a power line and fell from a height. Oleksandr remembers that that moment stretched out in time. 

"I saw this moment as if in slow motion—an explosion, flames, and how a soldier falls from a height. All the soldiers fell to the ground at the sound of the explosion. Apparently, this is what a soldier should do. But I acted as a medic. I dropped my machine gun because it was bothering me like that shovel on my back. I hear them yelling at me: 'Are you crazy to drop your weapon?!' And I was already cutting the victim's burning clothes with scissors," Oleksandr recalls. 

The victim suffered vertebral fractures and severe burns, but thanks to help, he has already completed a rehabilitation course and is walking.

Oleksandr believes that the war is not an argument for postponing the issue of the rights of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine:

"There has never been and never will be a better time. LGBT+ military protects our country on an equal footing with others. And you know what? There is no need to 'cover' the topic of LGBT+ people. Just give equal rights like everyone else's, and that's it."

Why did war exacerbate LGBT+ rights issue?

31-year-old coordinator of the NGO Ukrainian LGBT+ Soldiers For Equal Rights, Ira Nirsha, believes that the war only exacerbated the issue of the rights of LGBT+ Ukrainians. "If your loved one died at the front, you as a partner do not have the right to take the body from the morgue," says Iryna Nirsha. 

Mortal rights (related to the death of one of the partners, – ed.) are not the only problem. The 23-year-old representative of NGO KyivPride, Maxim Potapovych, also believes that the context of military operations actualized the issue of equality of LGBT+ people: "A person will end up in intensive care after being shot at, and their partner will not have access to the wounded. The right to inherit after death. The right to joint property, because many people go abroad during the war, and there is no possibility to settle such issues (for same-sex couples)."

Maxim Potapovych. Photo provided by the hero

At the height of hostilities, society requested the legalization of same-sex marriages. The petition of the same name on the  Ukrainian President's website received over 28,000 votes out of the required 25,000.

In his response to the petition, Volodymyr Zelensky referred to Article 51 of Ukraine's Constitution, stating that marriage is based on the free consent of a woman and a man, and also on Article 157 of the Constitution, which says that one cannot change the Constitution of Ukraine under martial law. The President noted that the government has a solution option: the legalization of civil partnership. This issue is currently under consideration by the Prime Minister.  

The president's response caused mixed reactions in the LGBT+ community. 

"In its essence, a civil partnership is no different from a marriage according to the list of rights, excluding the issue of adopting children. But the social significance of the term is also important. The connotation of the term 'marriage' in our society is stronger than 'civil partnership.' But civil partnerships are an intermediate link before the legalization of marriage. Therefore, we can be guided by them for now," says Maxim Potapovych. 

54-year-old expert at the LGBT human rights center Our World, Andrii Kravchuk, sees Zelensky's answer as a positive signal: "The Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian parliament, ed.] adopts laws in Ukraine, and usually the president directs uncomfortable questions to the MPs. Unfortunately, according to my sources, most of the Verkhovna Rada currently does not support the issue of civil partnerships. But the president referred the matter to the Cabinet of Ministers. And it is great. After all, the Cabinet of Ministers is obliged to resolve the issue of human rights with at least two government documents."  

Andrii Kravchuk. Photo provided by the hero

We are talking about an Action plan in the field of human rights for 2021–2023. It should criminalize hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Currently, the Criminal Code does not solve this problem. Such crimes are often classified as hooliganism. The Our World human rights center estimates that only 3.3% of reports about such crimes were qualified as a violation of the equality of citizens. 

"Judges always classify crimes with homo/transphobic motives not as hate crimes, but as ordinary crimes, without motives of intolerance," human rights defenders write in the report. 

The second document is the Ukraine Recovery Plan. "The Western community undertakes to help Ukraine recover after the war, and Ukraine needs to do a series of actions, including protecting human rights," Andrii Kravchuk explains. 

Thus, Ukraine has specific goals, tasks, and deadlines to prevent and counter discrimination. It needs to criminalize crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity until December 2022, develop a civil partnership model, and recognize same-sex marriages that were concluded outside of Ukraine by June 2023. In December 2023, the authorities should introduce Ukraine's civil partnership institution. 

Some experts believe that the liberalization of the marriage issue does not require changes in the Constitution. "The Constitution of Ecuador has a similar definition of marriage. However, in 2019, the Constitutional Court recognized same-sex marriages without changing the Constitution," says Andrii Kravchuk. 

Homophobia provider

The level of Ukrainian society's benevolence to LGBT+ citizens is increasing. Iryna Nirsha notes that more than 200 soldiers wear the military chevron with a unicorn (a symbol of LGBT+ in the army). But it isn't easy to give an exact figure because not everyone is ready to declare their orientation publicly.

Chevron of the LGBT+ military association. Photo: Iryna Nirsha

Maxim Potapovych notes that the Ukrainian Armed Forces opposes discrimination on the executive level. Andrii Kravchuk says that even the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, a staunch opponent of the LGBT+ community, stopped openly homophobic rhetoric during the war. 

The position of the Council of Churches is influential but not decisive. For example, the churches in 2022 advocated the denunciation of the Istanbul Convention against domestic violence. Yulia Tymoshenko, head of the Batkivshchyna party, also backed rebuke; she registered a corresponding petition. In response President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, proposed to the Cabinet of Ministers to strengthen the information campaign to clarify the goals of the Convention, "taking into account the spread of myths and biased interpretations." 

Therefore, Andrii Kravchuk doesn't see the conditions under which the issue of the rights of the LGBT+ community could radicalize Ukrainian society. 

"In 2012, the homophobic bill was promoted by all the leading parties of Ukraine. A lot has changed since then. Even the remnants of the OPZZh party no longer promote homophobic rhetoric. Batkivshchyna is an exception," says Kravchuk. 

"Currently, the main homophobia provider is russia, which it promotes not only to Ukraine but also to all post-Soviet countries," Kravchuk adds.

The story of the Kremlin TV channel, which Oleksandr got into, is just one of the many bricks of hatred on which russia is trying to build a "russian world." For the first time, russia adopted a law banning "propaganda of homosexuality" in 2013 and continues to increase pressure on the community. In October 2022, the russian parliament State Duma unanimously adopted in the first reading a package of bills on the complete ban of "gay propaganda," which is compared to "victory on the battlefield." 

There were attempts to introduce similar initiatives during the term of Viktor Yanukovych, former pro-russian president of Ukraine. The reaction to them was the Equality March—a human rights march supporting equal rights for LGBT+ people. The first march was supposed to occur in 2012 but had to be canceled because of the attack threats. For nine years, the annual human rights march has already gathered 7,000 supporters of LGBT+ rights. 

During the conversation with Oleksandr, we are looking together for a video with russian propaganda. Unexpectedly, Oleksandr finds his surname on the portal of the President of Ukraine. "What? The president awarded me?!" Oleksandr is surprised. By decree of the President of Ukraine No. 642/2022, Oleksandr was awarded the medal "For Saved Life." I am glad to share this unexpected moment with him. Now the Oleksandr family has two Ukrainian heroes. Oleksandr's father, Serhii, died in 2016 in the battle for Popasna and was posthumously awarded the III degree "For Courage" Order.       

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