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The article is devoted to the discussion of the ratio of the public and private, which characterizes the live of homosexual and bisexual men in the urban agglomerations of Donetsk region. In the research, the authors examined the boundaries of privacy, such as intrusion into privacy by family, neighbors, and the ability to exist in a safe environment. Donetsk region is characterized by significant distances between the major urban agglomerations, which in its turn leads to relative mutual isolation of local communities, that in its turn contributes to their weak involvement in the activity of the non-governmental associations of citizens (in particular, in the case of the studied community such associations play a paramount role in the access to public health services). The proposed study is based on the hypothesis of non-congruence of the norms of the represented by public organizations "open world" and "small society" of local communities. The concept of the "small society" originates in the concept of "incomplete modernism", i.e. characterized by poorly developed institutionalization, and social norms of the "small society" are congruent with the norms characteristic to mafia clans. The private in the study is treated as an area free from interference. On the other hand, the public sphere in the understanding of the modern era is one where there is a primacy of impersonal and written procedures over the personalized relationships of specific actors. The authors emphasize that if a prejudice against the backward social groups, in particular LGBT people, is a studied phenomenon, the separation of the private and public life of the representatives of local communities, as well as the lack of regulatory mechanisms are much less studied. An important result of the study is that a weak separation of the public and private in the life of a person from the local community shows that such a community can be described as a premodern one. At the same time, the transparency of the boundaries between the public and private forces a person to look for the ways to hide from the excessive attention of others, and often this way is to live on the margins, i.e. among those whom society prefers not to notice. The study was realized in 2009–2010. And unfortunately, these areas are now inaccessible to sociologists. However, the obtained results, being comparable with the facts from the literature, including those obtained from the material of other territories and communities, may indicate the prevalence of such phenomena and, therefore, become the basis for further research.

The aftermath of Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity provoked a lot of criticism among the students of LGBT topics. The principles of non-discrimination and protection of LGBT rights are an exemplary manifestation of European values to which Euromaidan declared adherence. The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, which was signed after the Revolution, as well as visa-free travel, which was granted to Ukrainian citizens, obliged this country to liberalise LGBT-related laws due to the EU's policy on the instrumentalisation of LGBT rights. However, there is a view that this step may cause conflicts in Ukrainian society, which is still predominantly homophobic, and only lead to a superficial change in the condition of LGBT people owing to pressure from the European Union. Some scholars (e.g. Shevtsova [2020], Wannebo [2017]) claim that the instrumentalisation policy has even resulted in a backlash against the LGBT community and worsened the overall situation for them. But has this backlash (if it really happened) entailed a corresponding change in public opinion on LGBT issues? Surprisingly, the dynamics of public attitudes towards the LGBT community and their rights remain unexplored. The paper proposes to fill this gap by a comparative analysis of two cross-sectional surveys on this topic, which were conducted before (in 2013) and after (in 2016) the Revolution of Dignity in several regions of Ukraine. Within the framework of the study, three research questions have been posed: 1. Have Ukrainians' attitudes towards the LGBT community changed since Euromaidan? 2. How different (e. g. positive) were the attitudes towards LGBT people among Euromaidan supporters? 3. Have the events that happened after the Revolution of Dignity, such as Russia is hybrid war against Ukraine, been able to affect attitudes towards LGBT rights? The results show that there have been modest, albeit statistically significant positive changes in Ukrainians' attitudes towards the LGBT community since Euromaidan. However, practically no change in terms of support for LGBT rights has been recorded. Our findings are consistent with other relevant nationally representative surveys according to which public perception of LGBT individuals has not worsened. This fact suggests that the instrumentalisation of LGBT rights has not faced any backlash, at least from the general population. Other data in our study indicate that not all proponents of the Revolution of Dignity displayed favourable attitudes towards LGBT people; nevertheless, they held more positive views on the LGBT community and same-sex marriage than those who did not take part in Euromaidan. The respondents who have experienced the impact of the Donbas conflict also demonstrated relatively better attitudes to LGBT individuals and expressed support for their rights. Still, this may be linked to a significant percentage of Euromaidan participants among them.

The proposed article aims to summarize available quantitative and qualitative data on same-sex partnerships in Ukraine, including data on the presence of children in such partnerships, over the last twenty years (1999–2018). The increasing number of publications on various aspects of the existence of same-sex couples in English demonstrates the relevance of the topic. The information available in Ukraine is the richest in comparison with other post-Soviet countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. At the same time, LGBT families remain out of the academic community in Ukraine, and the data collected are mostly contained in the so-called "gray literature" (mainly research reports by public organizations), and are not introduced into scientific circulation. It is shown that, depending on the composition of the sample and the definition of same-sex partnership used by the researchers, this percentage most often falls within the range of 16–28% of surveyed homosexual and bisexual men residing in the capital and regional centers of Ukraine. Quantitative information on women partnerships is extremely limited (one survey of a small sample), and there is no quantitative data for the couples, where one or both partners are transgenders. Quantitative information on children in same-sex partnerships is also very limited, and the data in the literature (with all the methodological disadvantages indicated) ranges from 14% to 29% of LGB, which have children, but it is unknown whether these children were raised in same-sex couples. With regard to quality information, the situation is different — a little bit more is known about the status of women and partly transgender partnerships (including the issue of children in such families) than about male couples. Separate data demonstrates a significant similarity in the same-sex partnership structure to the typical heterosexual egalitarian family model (two partners and their children), taking into account more egalitarian marriage roles, lack of formal status, and associated socio-economic risks. Further research (including national level) should be based on a common understanding of what constitutes "same-sex partnership", what are the characteristics of same-sex partnership (civil, family), what characteristics of civil partnership turn it into a"family", etc.

Public perceptions (particularly in post-communist societies) of the LGBT community and related issues have extensively been studied in recent years. Still, so far there is little information about how specific occupational groups view these people. The given research paper is intended to somewhat fill this gap by presenting a thorough description and analysis of findings from an empirical study focusing on the attitudes towards LGBT individuals among three occupational groups such as medical workers, social workers and the police. The relevance of the chosen topic is determined by the fact that a person's physical and mental health or even life may often depend on the quality and timeliness of services provided by these professionals. The above-mentioned study consisted of two cross-sectional surveys performed in 2017 and 2019. In total, approximately 1,500 persons (nurses, family practitioners, social care staff, patrol officers, etc.) from five countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia) took part in the two rounds of this study. Research toolkit included a questionnaire (designed by the authors for each occupational group) and the Bogardus social distance scale. Respondents were recruited through snowball sampling, which involved using personal and professional contacts. The survey data indicated the following: (a) the overall attitude of the aforementioned occupational groups towards LGBT people is somewhat positive; in addition, social workers are the most favourably disposed to the LGBT community while the police take a cautious approach to LGBT issues; (b) the overwhelming majority of respondents (except for police officers in Kyrgyzstan) believe that LGBT people should enjoy the same rights as the other citizens of their country; nevertheless, only a third of those surveyed hold the opinion that same-sex marriages should be permitted by law and about one fifth express support for the right of same-sex couples to adopt children; (c) women, residents of Belarus and North Macedonia, religiously unaffiliated respondents and those having an LGBT acquaintance exhibit greater tolerance for LGBT individuals than men, residents of Armenia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, those belonging to a particular religion and respondents without LGBT acquaintances; (d) during the period under study, a noticeable change in the attitude towards LGBT persons occurred in some subsamples: among Armenian healthcare workers, for example, there was a steep fall in support for the right of LGBT couples to marry. However, little or no change was recorded in other subsamples or in the whole sample: a slight growth in the overall percentage of respondents favouring the idea of LGBT parenting is a case in point. Although the samples of the countries in question are not nationally representative, the research results have a certain empirical value because they can be taken into consideration while developing programmes aimed at fostering tolerance in society and improving attitudes to LGBT people.

The paper studies internalized homonegativity (IH) and its predictors among men who have sex with men (MSM) in 12 countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA). Internalized homonegativity (sometimes called internal homophobia) is a negative attitude to own same-sex attractions. It arises when gays and other people with homosexual attractions interiorize predominant negative attitudes and assumptions about homosexuals and homosexuality. Internalized homonegativity is a significant factor of poorer health (including vulnerability to HIV infection), and lower inclusion in the community in Western countries. It remains highly understudied in post-Soviet countries, although there is a sufficient ground to suppose its higher prevalence here. Cross-sectional online survey of MSM was conducted in August–October, 2017. Convenience sample was recruited via dating apps and websites, other partner sites, and MSM-service organizations. Analytical sample size was 8239 respondents from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Estonia and Lithuania (which were merged), Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Macedonia, and Moldova. IH was measured by the 8-item Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale (SIHS) in all main languages of the countries. According to results of Cronbach's a test and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, adaptation of SIHS showed satisfactory to good reliability, and partial scalar invariance across EECA. IH was not predominant in all countries' samples. However, average IH was significantly different by countries. That could be attributed to both sampling design and differences in societal homophobia. Results of structural equation modeling of SIHS predictors also varied between countries. However, in most countries IH was lower among self-identified gays, those who were more open about own homosexual attractions, and was less religious. The unexpected findings included negative associations between IH and higher education, and contradictory associations with age in some countries. Results showed that internalized homonegativity is a common and comparable phenomenon among MSM in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Its prevalence is presumably different across the countries. IH relates, first of all, to own sexual orientation (gay, bi- etc.), and acknowledgement of own same-sex attractions. Also, the SIHS measure is good enough for use in further studies of male health and possibilities for LGBTIQ mobilization in the region.