On November 12, 2015, a landmark event took place in Ukraine: the majority of the Verkhovna Rada deputies, albeit only on the fifth attempt, after long inter-faction negotiations, under pressure from civil society and European institutions, voted to amend the current Labor Code, prohibiting any discrimination in the workplace, in particular on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. “Better a gay pride parade on Khreshchatyk than Russian tanks in the capital,” was how Yuriy Lutsenko, the leader of the BPP faction, explained his vote in support of the bill at the time, clarifying that he himself did not support the “LGBT+ way of life,” but “if we are going to Europe, we must recognize all norms, including LGBT+ rights.”
Amendments to the Code should potentially significantly improve the lives of LGBTQI+ people in our country, because the prohibition of discrimination means that a person would not have to worry, for example, that they would be fired or harassed at work if colleagues or management found out about their homosexuality or bisexuality. However, what do we know about (non-)discrimination of LGBT+ employees by Ukrainian employers almost ten years after the adoption of the amendments to the Code?
Before the start of the full-scale invasion in Ukraine, extremely few studies were conducted on the living conditions of LGBT+ people, and the situation on the labor market is no exception. At the end of 2023, the NGO “Tochka Opory UA” conducted a qualitative study “(non-)discrimination of LGBTQI+ people in the workplace and an inclusive labor market. Results of a national survey of the LGBTQI+ community”[1], which sheds some light on the experiences of LGBT+ people living and working in our country. More details about its results, as well as the best practices of Ukrainian and foreign employers, can be found in this article.
I am not beaten, therefore I am not discriminated against. “Marrying a heterosexual” and other survival strategies
Despite the fact that the norm of non-discrimination in the workplace has existed in Ukraine for almost ten years, during all this time there have been no precedents with lawsuits against employers on the grounds of discrimination against an employee due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. However, this does not mean that such discrimination does not exist in Ukraine. Instead, one of the explanations is that, contrary to the claims of opponents about equal rights for LGBT+ people, proving the fact of discrimination in the workplace and holding the perpetrator accountable is a rather difficult and laborious procedure. In addition, many LGBT+ people have a well-founded distrust of the Ukrainian judicial system and police, as they or their acquaintances have already had negative experiences with these institutions.
Another reason for the lack of information about cases of discrimination against LGBT+ people is the generally low awareness of what is and is not discrimination and what rights a person can expect in a democratic country. Many LGBT+ people are so used to living in a society where they are not considered the norm that they have normalized things such as homophobic and transphobic jokes and comments, the lack of inclusive practices in the workplace, and limited access to certain services, such as friendly doctors or housing. Often in the interviews I conducted, my interlocutors answered that they were fine, since they had never encountered direct violence or physical threats against themselves, everything else did not seem “serious enough” to them to have the right to “complain”.
At the same time, many LGBT+ people in Ukraine, when asked whether they had encountered discrimination or violation of rights in the workplace, answered that they had not had such experience, since no one among their management or colleagues guessed about their sexual orientation or gender identity. In other words, they use the so-called straight-passing strategy — “passing off as heterosexual”.
Most LGBT+ people are forced to hide their sexual orientation and gender identity at work.
However, following such a strategy means that LGBT+ people have to constantly hide at work, monitor their behavior and words, and often endure tactless questions about their personal lives and the alleged absence of a loved one. Such people cannot bring their partner to a corporate party or put a photo with their loved one on their desk or as a mobile phone screen saver. They have to control their social networks, photos, content, in which photos and with whom they are tagged, under which posts they have liked.
Among the participants in the study by the NGO “Tochka opory UA” was a person who, in particular, said: “It’s like wearing a collar on a dog. You have to sit and think all the time, assess the situation. I have never felt safe. Every time, before opening up to someone and saying something, you have to think 20–50 steps ahead. There is no ease when you are just honest with people, just living your life because you are who you are, no… you have to think ahead. Because you know that any careless word, any show of weakness, that tiny bit of trust that you have in any person… all of that can affect you ; you cannot simply be independent, free from everything. When you work, you depend on this job, you hope for it. Because, perhaps, you have a debt or you are saving money to buy something, for example, for your dream. And then you are forced to leave this job due to harassment or bullying. It is not because you work badly, you do your job perfectly, but you cannot work with these people, because they simply laugh in your face.
Such behavior, as a rule, is a response to the atmosphere of rejection in the organization where a person works, to his feeling or assessment that opening up to colleagues or management at this workplace will be dangerous. Usually this is expressed in inappropriate jokes by colleagues, comments on relevant news, private discussions, etc. As most participants in the study of the NGO “Tochka opory UA” agreed, the tone in the organization is set by the management, and it mainly depends on it whether the team will be accepting and tolerant or not. In those Ukrainian companies where the values and principles of the organization were clearly discussed and where it was clearly declared that discrimination and oppression of any groups are unacceptable, and, most importantly, where management did not separate words from deeds, employees were more likely to admit to some colleagues or even the entire team about their homosexuality or bisexuality, or felt comfortable enough to make a transgender transition while working at the same workplace. Unfortunately, the number of such companies in Ukraine is still small.
Outing and harassment: what LGBT+ people working in Ukraine face
Even if a person consciously chooses not to talk to colleagues and management about their private life, there are always risks that someone, accidentally or intentionally, will not only find out about their sexual orientation or gender identity, but also make this information public without permission, that is, they will make the person so-called out.
Outing is the public disclosure of information about a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent. Source
The participants in the study spoke about very different experiences and consequences of outing. Someone was seen by colleagues with a partner in a cafe, someone had their phone hacked, and there were several stories about how information that directly indicated or hinted at a person’s non-heterosexuality came from their private social media profile. As a result, rumors spread in the workplace, the person heard inappropriate jokes about them, and in several situations there was outright harassment, as a result of which the person had to resign from their job.
Such stories show that the fears of LGBT+ people who hide their sexual orientation or gender identity are well-founded. In addition to the risk of verbal or even physical harassment from management and colleagues, one must also consider how difficult it will be to find the next job. While it is easier to start a new life in big cities, in small towns or rural areas, opportunities for career changes may be limited. In addition, the profession plays a role: it is very difficult for LGBT+ people associated with the school education system, since in our society there are still a lot of stigmas and stereotypes about homosexual orientation and transgenderism related to how it can potentially affect children (none, except for a healthy expansion of the understanding of diversity in society). Not to mention the mythical connection between homosexuality and pedophilia, which is actively propagated by some conservative and religious groups. For example, one of the participants in the study, a school teacher in a district center, said that she was forced to leave school because she was constantly worried that someone would find out about her relationship with another woman. Moreover, when she and her partner broke up, she did not dare to register on a dating site, because she was afraid that if one of her students’ parents suddenly found out, the consequences would be painful.
Of course, there are also positive examples. Several participants spoke of complete support at work from both colleagues and management. As a rule, such people said that if they had to look for a new job, they would no longer agree to work in a company where they would have to hide who they really were. Many of these people are professionals, so inclusivity in the workplace is a small price to pay to retain valuable specialists/current. And why else are businesses turning to creating a safe and tolerant work environment?
Why is tolerance profitable?
Probably, many have seen, at least in photos or videos, that in Western countries, for example in Germany, the Netherlands or the United States, large corporations very actively support Pride Month: they hang rainbow flags, produce thematic branded products, and often organize their own platform at the Pride March.
IKEA in support of Pride Month. Source
Source
This is how companies declare their values (both for employees and potential consumers)
c), and also improve brand visibility and recognition. In past years, many Ukrainian companies and organizations have supported this trend in different ways. In 2023 and 2024, rainbow flags were placed on logos by retail chains and Ukrainian mobile operators, posts in support of Pride Month were made by some Ukrainian channels, and PrivatBank, in partnership with Gender in Details, even offered thematic plastic cards.
You can install skins in the Privat24 application.
Of course, we can talk about the general improvement in attitudes towards LGBT+ people in Ukraine, which is evidenced by recent sociological research, and about the principles of business owners and heads of organizations, who are more likely to support so-called European values during a full-scale invasion. However, we also know that private business is not least about profits. What motivates business owners to take steps that potentially involve the risk of losing a share of a more conservative group of consumers?
Ukrainian society’s attitude towards LGBT+ people, 2022 – 2024. Source
Economists and experts from international organizations such as the World Bank and UN Aids have long considered the economic and financial consequences of discrimination and exclusion of vulnerable groups, and in particular LGBT+ people. Back in 2019, Professor Lee Budgett from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA), having analyzed legal and economic information from 132 countries for 1966 – 2011, together with colleagues, recognized that there is a strong connection between the inclusion of LGBT+ people and the economic development of the country.
Discrimination against LGBT+ people not only harms them themselves, but also harms the country’s economy. Legal equality for LGBT+ people is strongly associated with higher GDP per capita.[2] In addition to GDP, experts point to a close association between the level of LGBT+ rights and such economic indicators as the World Economic Forum’s Competitiveness Index, the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, and the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Global Innovation Index (GII).[3]
In 2021, a study conducted by Open For Business on the economic impact of LGBT+ inclusion in Central and Eastern Europe, which also covered Ukraine,[4] found that discrimination against LGBT+ people costs Ukraine between UAH 15.5 billion and UAH 37.4 billion (USD 553 million and USD 1.3 billion) annually. Such high figures are due to a number of factors caused by discrimination and exclusion of LGBT+ people from the labor market. These factors include, for example, the emigration of highly skilled professionals to more LGBT+-friendly countries, a decrease in attractiveness for Western investors, health inequalities that reduce the productivity of workers who identify as LGBT+, and the wage gap.
When it comes to creating a safe work environment within individual companies, scientists also agree that a non-discriminatory approach and cultivating diversity in the workplace work to the benefit of economic indicators. For example, a study published in 2019 by the US Chamber of Commerce shows that the shares of companies that support diversity and inclusion policies are on average 6.5% more expensive than the average stock in the relevant industry. The report also proves the positive impact of a safe work environment on a number of critical business indicators, such as team loyalty, engagement in work processes, innovative approach to work and creativity, and overall employee satisfaction. It is not surprising that if a person feels safe and comfortable in a team and does not have to spend energy hiding who they are, they will be more motivated to work productively and will probably be less inclined to change jobs.
Best global practices
So, the awareness of the fact of economic benefit can push companies and organizations to be more inclusive. And what are the strategies for encouraging private and public institutions to support diversity in their teams?
In addition to making appropriate changes to national legislation to create legal mechanisms to counteract and prevent discrimination (including on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity), there are also less formal tools.
One common practice is the creation and promotion of rankings and indices in which companies compete for the status of “more inclusive”. An example of such an index is the Corporate Equality Index, a survey of leading American companies and law firms published annually by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. In 2023 and 2024, almost 1,400 companies participated in this ranking in the United States alone. By the way, there is a similar initiative in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Corporate Equality Index, a national study of corporate policies, rules, and practices of private and public companies regarding the support of equality and diversity, as well as the prohibition of discrimination in the workplace. An analogue of the Index In the EU member states, there is a Diversity Charter, by signing which the organization undertakes to make efforts to create a diverse and inclusive work environment. It is important to note that not only private companies and corporations can participate, but also state structures.
In addition to creating policies and procedures, another common way to support the inclusion of LGBT+ people in the workplace is to create networks and groups within organizations or institutions. Such groups are organized so that LGBT+ people working in the same institution have a safe space to communicate and discuss their problems, do not feel alone in the team and have additional safe channels to voice their needs to the company’s management. These groups can be partially or completely anonymous, in case not all employees feel insecure about disclosing information about their identity for various reasons. In addition to being established within an organization, groups can be sectoral, such as LGBT+ police or healthcare workers (or, as in Ukraine, LGBTQI+ military groups).
Fig. 4. Representatives of the British LGBT+ Police Group. Source.
In cases where it is important to protect particularly vulnerable groups, one option may be to introduce additional mechanisms of state regulation of the labor market. Transgender people remain one of the most marginalized and discriminated groups in Ukraine and abroad. Due to limited access to medical services, complex legal procedures, and a general high level of social rejection, many of them do not dare or simply cannot afford the transgender transition procedure and continue to live with documents that do not match their gender expression, which often makes it impossible to find employment and can push them into prostitution. All the more interesting is the example of some Latin American countries, whose governments are concerned about the high level of transphobic violence and have launched inclusion programs. Uruguay and Argentina became the first countries in the region to introduce quotas for the employment of transgender people.
Fig. 5. Photo from the March for Diversity in Montevideo, Uruguay, 2014. Source.
The government of Uruguay in 2018 and the government of Argentina in 2020 adopted bills according to which one percent of positions in the public sector must be held by transgender people. Although the quota mechanism is often criticized for its imperfections, civil society activists in both countries have generally supported the initiative, hoping that it will lead to increased visibility of the transgender community and attract more attention to the issues. Unfortunately, so far, only a small number of transgender people have actually been able to take up such positions, as they face structural inequality and discrimination very early in their lives, which reduces access to education and qualifications. Therefore, they advocate for educational reforms and try to draw more attention to the problems of this group.
Consulting: how to make your workplace safe and comfortable for LGBT+ people too
If this article has convinced you and you are already thinking about how you can make your company or organization a comfortable place to work for everyone, including LGBT+ people, I offer you a few simple steps.
Ensuring gen
Develop and implement policies.
Some people think that developing policies or procedures is just a waste of team time that could be spent more productively. In fact, having policies such as an anti-discrimination or equal opportunities policy that clearly state that any discrimination in the team (including on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity) is unacceptable sends a clear signal to the team about the principles and values of the organization. Of course, it is important that the company’s employees participate in the development of policies and that all new employees first familiarize themselves with these policies and understand their importance for all members of the work team.
Education and awareness raising.
Very often, people behave tactlessly or unconsciously discriminate against others due to lack of awareness. Raising awareness of colleagues on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity should not be the task of LGBT+ people already working in your team. Instead, regular training for employees on diversity and inclusion, as well as specific issues related to the LGBT+ community, will contribute to understanding and acceptance of LGBT+ people.
Creating a supportive environment.
As Ukrainian and global research shows, creating a supportive environment begins with the leadership of the organization. If the leaders of the company, departments and divisions openly support and encourage an inclusive culture, where diversity is respected and valued, and gossip, inappropriate jokes and bullying are not allowed, as a rule, subordinates also become more inclined to reproduce appropriate behavioral models and organizational culture.
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