A petition urging the Ukrainian government to legalize same-sex marriage amid the Russian invasion collected tens of thousands of signatures and was sent to President Volodymyr Zelensky for review.
More than 28,000 people signed the petition, which claims that in a war-torn Ukraine “every day may be the last” and that same-sex couples deserve the opportunity to “start a circle of relatives and have an official document to convert. “out of it. “
Any petition in Ukraine that collects more than 25,000 signatures is eligible for review by the president, who must respond within ten days.
“At this time, each day may be the last,” wrote Anastasia Andriivna Sovenko, the indexer of the petition. “That other people of the same sex have the opportunity to start a circle of relatives and have an official document to turn it off. They want the same rights as classic couples.
It’s unclear whether Zelenksy would legalize same-sex marriage in Ukraine. Zelensky said he didn’t need to say anything negative about Ukraine’s LGBTQ network in reaction to a person he homophobically interrupted at a press conference in 2019. “We all live in an open society where everyone can decide about the language they speak, their ethnicity and their orientation,” Zelensky said. “Leave those other people alone, for God’s sake!”He has also been criticized by gay rights teams in Ukraine for failing to fire Oleksiy Arestovych, one of his closest advisers, who last month said members of the LGBTQ network were “deviant. “
Homosexuality has been legal in Ukraine since 1991, but homosexual couples are legally recognized. While Ukraine’s anti-discrimination legislation includes protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, “negative social attitudes obstruct the effect of legislation in practice,” according to the UCL European Institute. In May, a study by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology found that 38. 2% of Ukrainians surveyed had a negative view of the LGBTQ community, up from 60. 4% in 2016.
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