As elections loom, impediments to LGBTI+ rights are hurting both Ukrainian society and the economy.
On Nov. 12, 2015, 18 month after the Euromaidan Revolution drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power, Western governments heralded the passage – by a margin of eight votes – of a law prohibiting discrimination against LGBTI+ people in Ukrainian workplaces. After decades of alienation and repression, LGBTI+ Ukrainians could celebrate a victory.
Three years later, Ukrainians are still waiting for change. According to Matthew Schaaf, Freedom House’s head of office in Kyiv, “there has been no enforcement of anti-discrimination regulations in any sector.” The Williams Institute at UCLA has rated Ukraine as a 2 out of 4 in LGBTI+ social inclusion since 2015 – the same score as Russia.
Ukraine’s 2020 National Action Plan for Human Rights did not include anti-discrimination legislation in housing, goods, or services for LGBTI+ individuals. Since 2015, the United States has failed push LGBTI+ rights in Kyiv, even as USAID’s annual budget for Ukraine has risen from $115 million to almost $200 million. At the same time, US companies have over $618 million in investments in Ukraine. This capital provides real leverage for the US, as well as EU governments with significant investment, to demand social reform in Kyiv.
The push for LGBTI+ rights in Ukraine is especially pressing now because of presidential and parliamentary elections in March and October of this year that will determine the future viability of expanding anti-discrimination legislation.
So far, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko’s bloc in parliament is the only major party to support expanded protections for LGBTI+ people. But Volodymyr Groysman, the party’s prime minister, has assured religious leaders that: “We will never support same-sex marriages in Ukraine. God forbid this should happen.” Serhiy Leshchenko, a member of parliament for the Poroshenko Bloc, has been one of the few consistent allies for LGBTI+ people and one of the few Ukrainian MPs to annually attend the Kyiv Pride Parade.
On the other hand, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, an ally of former prime minister and current presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko, declared that gay pride parades are simply a means to gain EU support to prevent further Russian aggression. According to Tymur Levchuk, an activist with Fulcrum, “a right-leaning parliament could easily change laws around advocacy,” reducing advocates’ independence, which the Poroshenko government already threatened to restrict with costly new “certification” processes this October. Indifference and discrimination towards LGBTI+ people seem to be entrenched in Ukraine.
At the same time, the lack of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation hurts the Ukrainian economy, as discrimination against LGBTI+ people is often an open invitation for corruption. For instance, under current regulations, transgender people in Ukraine are forced to spend up to four years applying for legal gender recognition, plus thirty days in a psychiatric institution. Such draconian requirements lead to widespread use of bribes, which entrenches corruption in Ukraine.
Three years of stalled opportunities have contributed to the continued emigration of young LGBTI+ Ukrainians and falling foreign investment. Fulcrum, a leading Ukrainian LGBTI+ rights organization, rated only sixteen Ukrainian companies in 2016 as “truly inclusive,” i.e. above 80 points on Fulcrum’s Corporate Equality Index. Foreign companies in Ukraine with stringent anti-discrimination policies, such as McKinsey & Company, could help make the connection between profits and liberalization clear – businesses’ employee engagement rate can suffer up to 30% because of discrimination.
Ukraine could take a lesson in anti-discrimination protections from its neighbors, many of whom are just as resistant to LGBTI+ rights. In Georgia, the governing Georgian Dream Party passed comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation covering employment, housing, goods, and services for LGBTI+ people in 2014. Regardless of social backlash, the Georgian government has taken real steps to enforce these laws – the prosecutor general’s office investigated forty-nine alleged hate crimes against LGBTI+ individuals in 2017. Enforcement has helped the Georgian government to maintain foreign investment at 10% of GDP and attract a new high of 8.7 million foreign tourists in 2018.
Ukrainian journalist and LGBTI+ rights advocate Maxim Eristavi recently, and rightly, argued the US and EU should expand sanctions on the Russian government for abuses against LGBTI+ people in Chechnya. But what about leveraging Kyiv’s foreign aid to push liberalization in Ukraine? As elections approach, we must champion LGBTI+ rights so that Ukraine not only “opens for business,” but also provides a safe environment for LGBTI+ Ukrainians.
James Reston is a researcher based in Washington, DC, whose work focuses on human rights, corruption, internet freedom, and security.
