In Ukraine, transgender people are exempt from service in the Armed Forces and can go abroad

Representatives of the LGBT community, including transgender people, currently serve in the Ukrainian army. However, as human rights defenders point out, the diagnoses of "transsexualism" and "gender dysphoria" and (F64.0 and F64.8 according to the international classification of diseases of the 10th edition) currently mean a person's complete unfitness for military service if they are "sharply expressed, with a tendency to repeated long-term decompensations or pathological reactions".

According to the Kryvyi Rih Informator, these diagnoses can mean unfitness in peacetime and limited fitness in wartime if they are "moderately expressed with unstable compensation or compensated". In practice, the "sharpness of expression" and "compensation" of these conditions is determined by a specialized medical commission, for example, at a regional psychiatric hospital.

Thus, transgender persons in Ukraine cannot be called up for service in the Armed Forces and must be removed from the military register altogether in the case of clearly expressed transsexuality, if this is the decision of the medical commission under the Military Commissariat, which is based on the conclusion of a specialized medical commission, - explained in the report of the human rights LGBT center "Nash svit".

This, in particular, allows transgender women to travel abroad, even if they are still registered as men in documents. This rule applies even though male citizens of Ukraine between the ages of 16 and 60 are currently restricted from traveling abroad.

As human rights activists of the LGBT center "Nash svit" note, the procedure for official gender change in Ukraine is, although not perfect, quite simple and transparent. In particular, it does not provide for mandatory medical intervention and in fact only requires obtaining the aforementioned medical diagnoses. Under the current conditions in Ukraine, it is possible to obtain them at the relevant medical commissions operating in regional centers. Medical commissions at military commissions send conscripts there for examination in case of suspicion of "transsexuality".

It is significant that without the relevant opinion of the medical commission, transgender women, whose documents indicate the male gender, are subject to conscription for military service and are restricted from traveling abroad according to the general rules for men.

Transgender persons who have officially changed their gender in their documents cannot theoretically be called up for military service. However, if such a person looks convincing in their gender role, then they can successfully pass the cursory examination of the medical board of the Military Commissariat and enter the service as a regular woman or man - we know of at least one transgender woman who is currently serving in the Armed Forces, hiding her status, - the report concluded.

As for the legal requirements, the martial law and mobilization legislation effectively means a travel ban for gay, bisexual, intersex and trans people with male IDs. However, according to the estimates of the non-governmental organization "Insight", up to 70% of requests for help with leaving Ukraine came from gays and transgender people.

At the same time, in the case of transwomen, refusing them to cross the border, according to Inna Iriskina, the coordinator of the transgender direction of NGO "Insight", is discriminatory, as it also means refusing to treat them like other women. Simplifying the procedure for legal gender recognition so that it is faster and more accessible could solve this problem to some extent.