In Ukraine, the often tense public battle over “traditional values” rumbles on - but in the courtroom.
In 2018, 80 Ukrainian local authorities called on the country’s parliament, cabinet of ministers and president “to defend Ukraine’s traditional family” and ban “LGBT propaganda”. In response, a Ukrainian civic organisation, We Are!, decided to press what it calls a ‘strategic’ administrative case against one of the local authorities which participated in the campaign, Chernivtsi regional council. Their suit argued that this public call by the regional council in western Ukraine amounted to discrimination.
In August, as reported by Ukrainian media Graty, a Kyiv court decided that the local authorities’ actions were, indeed, discriminatory, but did not satisfy the organisation’s case on procedural grounds. Both sides claimed the decision as victory. Here, Graty reports who supported local politicians in their campaign to defend “traditional values” in Ukraine - and what’s next for the legal standoff over “family values” in the country.
