Zelensky Says Civil Partnerships For Same-Sex Couples May Become Legal

President Volodymyr Zelensky, responding on Tuesday to a citizen petition that known as for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Ukraine, raised the prospect of “civil partnerships,” however mentioned the Structure’s definition of marriage because the union of 1 man and one lady couldn’t be modified throughout wartime.

Mr. Zelensky was responding after the petition garnered assist from greater than 25,000 Ukrainians. Ukraine doesn’t acknowledge marriage rights for same-sex {couples}, nor does it have a statute permitting them to enter into civil unions. Calls to grant these {couples} equal rights have grown partially due to the sacrifices of L.G.B.T.Q. troopers serving to the nation combat Russia’s brutal invasion.

Below Ukrainian Ministry of Protection laws, the army should inform the dad and mom and partner or different shut kin of a soldier who’s killed. However these guidelines don’t apply to same-sex {couples} who’re unable to legally wed.

In Ukraine, same-sex {couples} should not have the automated proper to go to a hospitalized accomplice, to share property possession, to look after a deceased accomplice’s kids, to assert the physique of a accomplice killed in struggle or to gather demise advantages from the state.

The petition urging Mr. Zelensky to assist marriage rights for same-sex {couples} was initiated by Anastasia Sovenko, 24, an English trainer from Zaporizhzhia, in southern Ukraine, who identifies as bisexual.

She had mentioned that after studying an article about heterosexual troopers dashing to marry their companions earlier than heading to struggle, she felt unhappy, indignant and annoyed that L.G.B.T.Q. troopers didn’t have that choice.

Mr. Zelensky, in his response, wrote that democratic societies are measured partially by the way in which they defend equal rights for all residents and that “every citizen is an indivisible a part of civil society, for whom all rights and freedoms fastened within the Structure of Ukraine prolong.”

“All persons are free and equal of their dignity and rights,” he wrote.

Mr. Zelensky famous, nevertheless, that the Structure of Ukraine states that “marriage relies on the free consent of a girl and a person,” and mentioned the doc couldn’t be modified throughout a state of martial legislation, which he declared in February, after Russia invaded.

On the similar time, Mr. Zelensky wrote, the federal government had “labored out choices for an answer relating to the legalization in Ukraine of registered civil partnerships underneath the auspices of labor on the affirmation and safety of human rights and freedoms.”

He added that he had requested Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, to evaluate the problem raised by the petition and to report again along with his findings.

“The response is extra constructive than it may have been,” Inna Sovsun, an opposition lawmaker within the liberal Holos occasion, which favors L.G.B.T.Q. rights, wrote on Fb. “However on the similar time — not clear sufficient.”

As a result of amendments to the Structure are actually unimaginable, she wrote, civil partnerships can be an “acceptable interim different.”

“Nonetheless, the place are the choices that the President is speaking about?” Ms. Sovsun wrote. “Why are they not introduced for dialogue and never submitted to Parliament?”

Ms. Sovenko, the petition’s writer, mentioned she was completely satisfied that Mr. Zelensky had talked about civil partnerships for same-sex {couples}.

“That’s the start,” she wrote in an e mail. She mentioned she was “stuffed with hope” that, after the struggle, the federal government would give same-sex {couples} a possibility to get married.

“I’m proud the response wasn’t all adverse,” she mentioned, “and I’m actually completely satisfied this occurred.”

The drive for same-sex marriage faces vital resistance in a rustic the place the Japanese Orthodox faith and conventional sexual mores are deeply embedded within the social material. Opponents embrace some conservative members of Mr. Zelensky’s personal occasion, who’ve known as for a legislation fining “gay propaganda.”

However homosexual rights advocates in Ukraine hope that Mr. Zelensky will finally assist same-sex marriage rights, serving to the nation burnish its liberal credentials because it seeks to affix the European Union and draw nearer to the West.

Maham Javaid and Dan Bilefsky contributed reporting. David Kurkovskiy contributed a translation.