TRANSFORMATION OF THE EU GENDER STRATEGY

The article discusses the transformation of the EU gender strategy, where transformation is understood as a new gender policy aimed at legalizing the SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) approach, replacing traditional binary meanings in the issue of gender equality. It is substantiated that, at the legal and institutional level in the EU, gender accents are shifting towards new interpretations of sexual, family, marital and reproductive human behavior, considered not through the prism of natural biological sex, but determined on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The SOGI approach differs from the binary concepts of gender equality enshrined in the provisions of the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Rome Statute. An analysis of EU regulatory sources has shown that, in a number of documents, for example, the Amsterdam Treaty and the EU Charter, the competence to combat discrimination “based on sexual orientation” is enshrined. The Lisbon Treaty enshrined provisions on combating discrimination “on the basis of gender and sexual orientation”. Since 2016, the EU has been reviewing laws “on gender identity and/or sexual characteristics”. The Strategy on Expanding the Rights of the LGBT Community has been adopted (the organization is recognized as extremist in Russia). The strategy of forming “gender-sensitive parliaments” and the enforcement apparatus for the implementation of the new EU gender strategy is being implemented. The article concludes that, although the SOGI approach is recognized as central to the EU gender strategy, it is so far fixed only at the level of secondary law documents and political rhetoric. In EU primary law documents, for example, in the Lisbon Treaty, SOGI provisions are enshrined in the context of the prohibition of discrimination “on the basis of sexual orientation”, while the concept of “gender identity” is not applied in EU primary law documents. The court decisions of the ECHR, which have the status of an independent source of EU law, are also characterized by inconsistency regarding SOGI terminology. Finally, data are provided confirming that there is no consensus among member states on the issue of legalizing a new gender strategy in the EU, many of which are taking regulatory measures to protect traditional institutions and values of family and marriage. An analysis of EU documents and policies shows that the EU’s declared priorities for expanding the new gender agenda and statements on the need to overcome the national veto on gender strategy issues indicate that the EU will begin the comprehensive implementation of the SOGI approach in the very near future.