A crowd gathers in front of the Georgia Capitol on November 1, 2020. Photo: Shutterstock
The Georgian Dream party has made good on its promise to decriminalize LGBTQ+ identities in the European country with a comprehensive set of bills approved by parliament.
Lawmakers approved the measure after giving the bill a third and final reading, citing “family values and the protection of minors.”
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The bill, modeled on Russian legislation that erases LGBTQ+ identity, would impose severe restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights, providing a legal basis for Georgian authorities to ban pride events, rainbow flags, and public displays of affection, and impose censorship of films and books. The bill would also reaffirm the existing ban on same-sex marriage and make gender reassignment surgery illegal in the country.
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Georgian Dream party leaders say the bill is essential to protect Georgia from corrupting moral influences imported from the West. Its passage is another sign of Georgia’s growing loyalty to President Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The bill makes the former Soviet republic’s bid to join the European Union increasingly unlikely.
Opponents say the bill and its timing are aimed at shoring up support for the far-right government ahead of an Oct. 25 election in which Georgian Dream is seeking to expand its majority in its fourth term.
“This law is the worst thing that has happened to the LGBT community in Georgia,” said Tamara Jakeli, director of campaign group Tbilisi Pride. Reuters“We’ll probably have to close down. There’s no way we can continue operating.”
Under the leadership of Georgian Dream, and with the complicity of the Orthodox Church, Georgia has become more hostile towards LGBTQ+ people than ever before: public opinion polls show widespread opposition to same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage is already banned in the constitution.
Tbilisi’s annual Pride parade has repeatedly come under physical attack by right-wing mobs, some of whom have reportedly traveled from Russia to stoke tensions.
The bill would outlaw public gatherings that “promote” same-sex relationships, restrict adoption to heterosexuals, ban gender changes on official identification documents and outlaw “LGBT propaganda” in education.
Georgian Dream lawmakers are also proposing to introduce a “genetic” requirement for a legal marriage, so that it would be a union between a “genetic woman” and a “genetic man.”
Georgia has made decades of progress on human rights and LGBTQ+ rights since the 2003 Rose Revolution, as a majority of its population supported a shift to a pro-Western course and integration into the European Union and NATO.
But the rise of the Georgian Dream party over the past decade has seen the government change its stance towards its former colony, and the church also encourages reconciliation.
The introduction of the anti-LGBTQ+ law comes after the Georgian parliament passed another Russian-inspired law designating Western NGOs as “foreign agents”, setting the stage for a harassment campaign aimed at ousting human rights groups and other organisations that far-right conservatives and the Orthodox Church accuse of bringing “corruption” to Georgia and other countries.
