Same-sex partnership petition in Ukraine: 25,000 votes and awaiting Zelensky's decision

A petition calling for registration of same-sex and different-sex partnerships in Ukraine has garnered the necessary 25,000 votes. The initiative is now expected to be considered by President Volodymyr Zelenski.

The authors of the petition ask to support the introduction of same-sex partnerships in Ukraine and to actively promote the adoption of Bill No. 9103. This draft law envisages granting same-sex and different-sex couples the status of close relatives without the need to marry.

Couples who are unwilling or unable to formalise their marriage do not have the same rights as married couples. This applies in particular to same-sex couples, among them LGBT+ military couples.

The LGBT+ military community regularly publicises the stories of its members and the problems they face. The story of a military couple, Ivan and Nikolai, who are engaged but cannot marry due to constitutional requirements, has gained publicity. Mykola lost his arm defending the Ukrainian state. But the state still does not recognise Nikolai's family and has not found a way to protect them.

Some of the LGBT+ military have not lived long enough to be able to formalise their relationship, like 21-year-old Roman Tkachenko, who died during the battle in the Kharkiv region. And his lover in the eyes of the Ukrainian state is still a nobody to him.

Same-sex partners cannot make decisions to treat their partner or partner if he or she has been injured and cannot make such decisions themselves, or in the worst case, if he or she is dead, cannot dispose of his or her body, receive an inheritance on preferential terms or receive social protection from the state as is provided for military or war-affected families.

Ukraine should legalise civil partnerships for same-sex and different-sex couples. Protect those who protect her," the petition says.

The author of the petition believes that society is ready for it. He cites a poll carried out by the National Democratic Institute and the Kiev International Institute of Sociology in which 56 per cent of Ukrainians support the introduction of civil partnerships for LGBT+ people and only 24 per cent are against it.