The current state of regulatory and legal protection of the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine

Abstract

The article reveals the current state of regulatory and legal protection of the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine. The importance of the topic is emphasized due to the following circumstances: 1) LGBT+ representatives make up a significant part of the population and have the same rights as any other person; 2) domestic legislation is gradually approaching the standards of the European Union in terms of prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; 3) the full- scale invasion of the russian federation on the territory of Ukraine caused numerous violations of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories, which largely related to manifestations of intolerance towards members of the LGBT+ community. The classification of regulatory and legal acts related to ensuring the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine based on the criterion of their division into acts of the legislative and sub-legal levels is substantiated. The exceptional importance of the Constitution of Ukraine as a legislative act of the highest legal force for the proper protection of the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community is emphasized. It is pointed out the need to improve the norms of the national legislation for the proper provision by the state of the legal rights, freedoms and interests of the person and the citizen and to strengthen the effectiveness of the current legislation in countering any manifestations of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. About sub-legal acts, attention has been drawn to the fact that at the local (functional, local) level, authorized persons may accept documents recognizing sexual orientation and gender identity as a basis that makes any manifestations of discrimination impossible. At the same time, local by-laws cannot go beyond legislative norms, which do not contain an extensive list of grounds on which discrimination is not allowed. It was concluded that the current state of regulatory and legal protection of the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine should be considered unsatisfactory.