Abstract
This thesis seeks to examine legal and public perceptions of LGBT rights in Ukraine. Ukraine was the first post-soviet country to decriminalise homosexuality, but during Ukraine’s 25 years of independence, the development of expanding LGBT rights has moved rather slowly. In 2008, however, Ukraine increased its cooperation with the EU through the signing of the Visa Liberalisation Action Plan (VLAP) and in 2014, after the Euromaidan revolution and the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea, the president of Ukraine signed the Association Agreement. Both agreements include certain anti-discriminatory measures which Ukraine is recommended or even obliged to implement. Using a qualitative interpretative approach this thesis examines how LGBT activists and parliamentarians perceive the cooperation with the EU and Ukraine’s LGBT legislation. The data from in-depth interviews is analysed and presented using a thematic analysis. These themes concern how the LGBT activists participating in this research engage in advocacy work and whether they see the effects of Ukraine’s cooperation with the EU and the Euromaidan as challenges or opportunities. Moreover, the thematic analysis includes an assessment of the Ukrainian parliament on implementing LGBT legislation. Ukrainian politicians are reluctant to address LGBT issues in public, and according to the respondents participating in this research, the sole motivation for adopting anti-discriminatory legislation to Ukraine’s Labour Code in 2015, prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, was for Ukrainian citizens to be granted visa freedom to the Schengen countries. Here I ask what seem to be the greatest challenges in regard to addressing LGBT issues, in addition to examining the arguments in use for not implementing more LGBT rights. As a historical backdrop the thesis also includes a portrayal of the treatment of and argumentation in use for criminalising homosexuality during the Soviet Union. I also seek to explore whether this argumentation is still valid in Ukraine’s current discussions on implementing LGBT rights. Finally, nationalism in Ukraine and its possible threat against LGBT people and implementation of LGBT rights will be included in the thematic analysis.