Regarding intolerance - KyivPride about the bill that needs to be adopted for Ukraine's European integration

For European integration, Ukraine is obliged to adopt, in particular, a bill aimed at countering any intolerance and minimizing manifestations of aggression, in particular, against veterans, people with disabilities and the LGBTQ community.

This was stated by the project manager of the NGO KyivPride Mykhailo Yurov during a briefing, reports UNN.  

Details

Regarding European integration. Ukraine is obliged to adopt some bills before Europe, for example, No. 5488 on criminalizing hate-based attacks. That is why we insisted that we are part of the European integration processes. If we want to be part of Europe, we need to make some decisions

Program manager of the NGO KyivPride Yulia Shipitko noted that during the Equality March, which took place on June 14, there were also demands to adopt a bill on civil partnerships.  

There were demands for the adoption of civil partnerships. Bill No. 9103 was previously registered. Now, as far as we know, it is not moving. We talk a lot about civil partnerships, because it concerns the right of the military to dispose of the body of a person and property after death. It is crucial for LGBT military personnel to have the right to have a family not only in words, but also in the legal field. So that every serviceman, servicewoman could, for example, transfer their property in case of death, or in case of injury, the partner was allowed into the intensive care unit

Shipitko also said that the KyivPride-2025 march gathered about 1,500 people in Kyiv.

Everything went safely. All participants were not injured, despite various provocations and threats. The Kyiv police did a great job, we were in communication with them

According to her, there were several columns.

The first was the organizational column of KyivPride, then the column of LGBT military, the diplomatic column with representatives of various embassies in Ukraine and not only. There were also columns of other public organizations and everyone who joined the march

Yurov noted that there were more than a hundred different ambassadors, representatives of international diplomatic organizations and missions.  

On the KyivPride page it was reported that show business stars and opinion leaders also joined the KyivPride column.

In general, the march was attended by columns: LGBTIQ+ military, diplomatic missions in Ukraine, in particular representatives of the European Union, embassies of Canada, Great Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, Norway, Lithuania, Estonia, Spain, Italy, France and other EU countries and the world. There were also columns of other Ukrainian prides – KharkivPride and UkrainePride. Kyiv students were represented, in particular, by the column of the Student Parliament of Taras Shevchenko KNU and Ukraine Global Scholars. The cultural institution also gathered a column of support for the LGBTIQ+ community

Addition

In August 2024, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Public Health, Medical Assistance and Medical Insurance supported bill No. 9103 on civil partnerships. 

Olena Shulyak, Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, reported that bill No. 5488, aimed at countering any intolerance and minimizing manifestations of aggression, in particular, against veterans and people with disabilities, has not been moving in Parliament for more than 3 years.

One of the reasons is that there are still people in the Verkhovna Rada who see certain threats in its adoption. The right advocacy is needed to correct the situation, because the task now is to pass the bill through the first reading as a minimum.