TBILISI, Georgia — The speaker of Georgia’s parliament signed a law on Thursday that significantly restricts LGBTQ+ rights in the country and mirrors legislation passed by neighboring Russia.
Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of Parliament, said on social media that the legislation “does not reflect current, temporary and changing ideas and ideologies, but is based on common sense, historical experience and Christian, Georgian and European values centuries old.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili refused to sign the bill and sent it back to parliament on Wednesday. It was introduced by the ruling Georgian Dream party and approved by lawmakers last month.
The bill includes banning same-sex marriages, adoptions by same-sex couples, and public endorsement and depictions of LGBTQ+ relationships and people in the media. It also prohibits gender-affirming care and changing gender designations in official documents.
“This law protects the rights of all citizens, including freedom of expression, so that the rights of others are not violated, which is the essence and idea of true democracy,” wrote Papuashvili.
Parliament gave final approval to the legislation as Georgia, a largely conservative country where the Orthodox Church wields significant influence, prepares to vote in parliamentary elections. The law was widely seen as an effort by the ruling party to shore up support among conservative groups. The move was criticized by human rights defenders and LGBTQ+ activists, who said it further marginalized an already vulnerable community.
The law has drawn comparisons to Russia, where the Kremlin has emphasized what it calls traditional family values. Over the past decade, Russian authorities have banned public approval of “nontraditional sexual relationships” and introduced laws against gender-affirming care, among other measures. Its Supreme Court effectively banned LGBTQ+ activism by labeling what authorities called the LGBTQ+ “movement” operating in Russia an extremist organization and banning it.
In Georgia, the LGBTQ+ community was struggling even before the legislation was introduced. Protests and outbreaks of violence against LGBTQ+ people are common, and last year, hundreds of gay rights opponents stormed an LGBTQ+ festival in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, forcing the cancellation of the event. ‘event. This year, tens of thousands of people marched in Tbilisi to promote “traditional family values”.
A day after Parliament gave final approval to the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, transgender actress and model Kesaria Avramidze was stabbed to death in her apartment in Tbilisi. Rights advocates feared the bill would fuel more violence.
Papuashvili, the parliament speaker, said that by not signing the bill, President Zurabichvili and the Georgian opposition “did not have enough courage to openly express their opinion on this law.”
Some analysts say that part of the Georgian opposition is walking a fine line ahead of the October 26 elections, between condemning the decision to restrict LGBTQ+ rights and not wanting to alienate some voters.
Zourabichvili has long been at odds with the ruling party and vetoed a “foreign influence” law passed by parliament earlier this year. It was canceled by Parliament, where the Georgian dream dominates.
The measure requires media outlets and nongovernmental organizations to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad. It sparked weeks of protests and was widely criticized as threatening democratic freedoms. Opponents of the law compared it to similar legislation in Russia, which is regularly used to suppress dissent, and accused the ruling party of acting in concert with Moscow, undermining Georgia’s chances of joining. the European Union.
The South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people officially applied to join the EU in 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but the bloc suspended its membership in response to the “foreign influence” law and froze some of its financial support. The United States imposed sanctions on dozens of Georgian officials in response to the law.
Georgian Dream was created by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a mysterious billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and briefly served as Georgian prime minister in 2012. He promised to restore civil rights and “reset” relations with Moscow, which fought a brief war with Georgia in 2012. 2008 over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Russia later recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian province, Abkhazia, and established military bases there.
Many Georgians supported Ukraine as kyiv fought against Russia’s invasion in 2022. But the Georgian government refrained from joining sanctions against Moscow, banned dozens of Kremlin critics from entering the country and accused the West of trying to drag Georgia into open conflict with Russia. The opposition has accused the ruling party of placing the country in Russia’s orbit to the detriment of its European aspirations.
