Some argued that the war should postpone these questions; rather, it has made them impossible to postpone. In the first months after Russia’s full-scale invasion, a petition that urged the Ukrainian government to consider registered partnerships received enough support to trigger a parliamentary debate. The registered-partnership bill was introduced.
But the bill stalled. Opponents argued that there are more important things to discuss, that sexuality is private, that Pride is a masquerade, that the state should not interfere with love, that Ukraine should first win the war and then talk about rights.
Early this year, a new draft of the civil code was proposed that would continue to define the family unit as being a different-sex partnership, explicitly exclude same-sex families and automatically annul a marriage if one of the spouses legally changed gender. Beneath these arguments lies a clear demand: that L.G.B.T.Q. people exist only quietly — without visibility, without legal recognition, without family status and without a place in the national story.
In March a Supreme Court ruling recognized a same-sex couple as a family under Ukrainian law. But the bill that would exclude such couples continued its advance in April, despite criticism from human rights groups and despite its incompatibility with membership in the European Union, which Ukraine seeks.
No one is asking the state to regulate love. The state already regulates the consequences of a shared life — property, inheritance, medical decisions, children, pensions, documents, burial, family status. L.G.B.T.Q. advocates are calling for the state to stop discriminating at the hospital door, the notary’s desk, the military office and the cemetery.