The Revolution of Dignity and instrumentalisation of LGBT rights: How did attitudes towards LGBT people change in Ukraine after Euromaidan?

Given the lack of nationally representative data, we believe that our study will contribute to the discussion on this topic, especially regarding bisexual and transgender people, attitudes to whom have rarely been studied.

Our results are at variance with the gloomy conclusions of the studies based on the information about homophobic attacks and far-right groups' activity, or on interviews with Ukrainian politicians and with LGBT activists, who, inter alia, claimed that hate crimes against the LGBT community were even on the rise [Bonny, 2018; Shevtsova, 2020; Wannebo, 2017]. In our opinion, this fact highlights shortcomings of the above-mentioned methods if they are aimed at studying trends in ordinary citizens' attitudes to the LGBT community; so these methods should be used very carefully for such purposes.

In the context of the European Union's policy on the instrumentalisation of LGBT rights, our findings do not support a critical attitude to the outcomes of this policy in Ukraine. Neither our survey nor other relevant polls confirm the statement that there has been a backlash among Ukraine's general population against the LGBT community. Yet, it is true that there has been no considerable improvement either. At least two explanations of this phenomenon can be given. First, the effects of the aforesaid policy (as well as of the activities of radical nationalists and religious conservatives) could be negligible. Second, any substantial change in public attitudes takes a great deal of time and effort. The instrumentalisation policy certainly deserves criticism, which, however, ought to be more evidence-based, should be attentive to both the ordinary citizens' attitudes and a wider (non-activist) group of LGBT people, as well as consider the time and resources necessary to bring about changes.

Our study also analysed the attitudes of Euromaidan participants towards the LGBT community. On average, they displayed significantly more positive attitudes than those who did not take part in Euromaidan. They were also more supportive of same-sex unions. Nevertheless, the majority of Euromaidan proponents had homonegative attitudes.

This once again demonstrates that the Revolution of Dignity was in no way a gay pride. As it was mentioned earlier, protection of LGBT rights was not on the agenda during Euromaidan. Instead, the future of Ukraine as a democratic country and a member state of the European Union was in the foreground. This would also imply better prospects for LGBT people (including support for pride marches), although not all participants might have been aware of it. However, our results show that Euro- maidaners expressed support for LGBT rights relatively more often.

Attitudes to LGBT people and their rights were also relatively more favourable among those directly affected by the armed conflict in the Donbas, which contradicts our hypothesis. The answers given by this subgroup of respondents and by Euromaidan participants are similar. Perhaps in our sample, many of those having experienced the consequences of war in the Donbas were Euromaidan supporters -- but how well do our results reflect opinions of the overall population of those who were affected, and then moved from the Donbas? On the one hand, sampling bias might have occurred: thousands of Ukrainians affected by the Donbas conflict may not be Euromaidan proponents. On the other hand, being a Euromaidan supporter could serve as an additional motive for fleeing the Donbas and thus becoming an internally displaced person, which means being affected by the Donbas events anyway.

Conclusions

A comparative analysis of two surveys conducted in 2013 and 2016 shows that there were modest, albeit statistically significant positive changes in Ukrainians' attitudes to the members of LGBT community in the three years after Euromaidan (including gays, lesbians, bisexual men, bisexual women and transgender persons). However, practically no change in terms of support for LGBT rights was recorded. The analysis covers only four Ukrainian oblasts and the city of Kyiv; nonetheless, its results are consistent with the well-known nationally representative surveys conducted by other researchers.

Our data do not indicate any deterioration in attitudes towards LGBT people among the general population of Ukraine, which means that the EU's policy on the instrumentalisation of LGBT rights has not had a negative effect on public perception of the LGBT community. The effectiveness of this policy can be questioned, at least in the short run. Nevertheless, the criticism levelled at these measures (as allegedly having resulted in a backlash against LGBT people) needs to be better grounded.

By and large, Euromaidan participants held more positive views on the LGBT community and same-sex marriage than those who did not took part in the Revolution of Dignity. Although not all Euromaidan supporters shared this set of European values, pro-European choice, which was fiercely defended during the Revolution of Dignity, and favourable attitudes to LGBT individuals proved to be significantly associated.

The relationship between the armed conflict in the Donbas, which erupted shortly after Euromaidan, and attitudes towards LGBT people is ambiguous. Those having experienced the impact of the Donbas war perceived LGBT individuals more positively than the rest of the respondents; in addition, the former were more inclined to express support for LGBT people's right to marry and adopt children. Yet, this could stem from a significant share of Euromaidan participants among the respondents affected by the Donbas conflict. It is unclear whether this pattern holds outside our sample.

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