Georgian lawmakers inch closer to final approval of anti-LGBTQ+ law

07.09.2024 14:57

Globalvoices.org

The anti-LGBT+ bill passes its second reading at the Georgian Parliament

Originally published on Global Voices

Image by Arzu Geybullayeva

On September 4, a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed its second reading in the Georgian Parliament. The bill “On family values and protection of minors” starkly resembles the Russian anti-queer law adopted in 2013, making it Georgia's second piece of major legislation modeled after draconian Russian laws, with the first being the foreign agent bill, which passed in May 2024.

According to reports by local media, the bill is set for final approval in the third hearing scheduled for the week of September 17. On October 26, Georgia will hold parliamentary elections, and in the leadup to the vote, the ruling Georgian Dream Party is weaponizing homophobia as one of its campaign strategies.

A history of homophobia

Homophobia has been a standard part of the Georgian Dream Party's toolkit since the party took over the country's leadership in 2012, emboldening the country's ultra-conservative and far-right citizens to target the LGBTQ+ community and its supporters.

In 2013, a mob led by Georgian Orthodox Church priests chanting “no to gays” attacked a group of queer rights activists who were marking the International Day Against Homophobia in the capital, Tbilisi.

In 2018, same-sex marriage was banned as per changes made to the Georgian constitution. At that time, Georgian Dream argued that redefining marriage as a heterosexual union would also prevent “certain groups” from instrumentalizing homophobia in Georgia.

The LGBTQ+ community didn't attempt to organize another PRIDE event until six years later, in 2019, only to cancel it hours before citing security concerns after the Interior Ministry announced that the police would not protect protest participants.

In the following years, little changed as the organizers of Tbilisi PRIDE had to cancel the “March of Dignity” amid violent attacks by anti-LGBTQ+ protestors. In 2021, at least 50 journalists were battered, and a violent mob stormed and ransacked the offices of the march's organizers — Tbilisi Pride and Shame Movement, a liberal activists group at the time. At least one journalist died as a result of the attacks.

Although some of the perpetrators of violence were eventually convicted, little to no action was taken against the supporters of hate speech among the ruling party followers or ruling party members.

The latter was evident during last year's PRIDE event when a mob of several thousand far-right protesters marched to disrupt the Tbilisi PRIDE Festival in July 2023. They claimed the event was a “Western plot” to promote the LGBTQ+ agenda. By the time the mob approached the festival venue, the festival organizers and all of the guests of the event were evacuated to avoid confrontation.

In 2024, Tbilisi PRIDE announced PRIDE week was being cancelled altogether out of safety concerns:

Announcement: No Pride Week in 2024

: https://t.co/StzFTvOT2A pic.twitter.com/XVE8vHSy9h

— Tbilisi Pride (@TbilisiPride) June 14, 2024

Anti-queer legislation

Several months after organizing a violent attack on the aborted 2021 pride march in Tbilisi, Alt Info, an extremist, far-right, and pro-Russia group, submitted their initiative to ban “LGBT propaganda” to parliament. The following July, the Georgian Orthodox Church explicitly endorsed the idea.

According to a 2023 report by the Media Development Fund, titled “Anti-Gender and Anti-LBGTQ Mobilization in Georgia,” between 2012 and 2023, at least eight legislative changes were registered in the parliament submitted by various groups including the Georgian Dream, with the purpose of restricting or limiting LBGTQ+ rights in Georgia, five of which received no support.

Tbilisi Pride’s director, Tamar Jakeli, told OC Media that the Georgian Dream sought to attract more conservative voters through queerphobic legislation, which was “a direct copy” of Russian laws. Russia adopted its anti-queer law in 2013 to “protect children from information advocating a denial of traditional family value.” The law has had an immense effect on queer people in Russia, forcing them to hide their identities, causing an uptick in violence and suicides, and prompting many to flee abroad to safety.

The party, along with its supporters, began requesting a law targeting queer people, citing the need to counter “pseudo-liberal” propaganda allegedly advocated by the opposition groups.

If adopted, which it likely will be, the proposed changes to the country's draft Constitutional Law on Family Values and Protection of Minors would ban any gathering, product, or educational program that “popularizes” “same-sex families or intimate relations,” “same-sex or non-heterosexual” child adoption, gender transitioning, the idea there are more than two genders and incest. The changes would also prohibit any medical assistance in gender transitioning or any legal gender recognition for transgender people. This would likely also ban any pride events from being held in the future.

The party said they planned to add a line to Article 30 of the constitution stating that the “protection of family values and minors are ensured by Georgia’s constitutional law, which is an integral part of the Constitution of Georgia.”

To pass the amendments, the Georgian Dream would need to secure 113 votes out of 150 in the parliament, where the party holds only 82 seats. On September 4, during its second reading, 81 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill and 0 against, as a result of opposition parties boycotting the bill.

The “LGBT Propaganda” bill, proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream Party, passed its first reading in parliament on June 27, 2024.

Following the second reading, the European Union issued a statement in which it deplored the rushed adoption and said the bill “undermined the fundamental rights of Georgian people and risked further stigmatization and discrimination of part of the population.”

Legislation against queer “propaganda” in several other countries, including those citing the protection of minors, has been widely condemned by human rights groups as an assault on fundamental freedoms.

Critics have pointed out that laws like the one adopted by Russia in 2013 to “protect children from information advocating a denial of traditional family values” have also increased hate crimes.

The ruling government of Georgian Dream has taken a U-turn on freedoms and human rights since October 2020, when the country held a contested parliamentary vote on October 31 and entered an ongoing political crisis. Since then, the country has witnessed violent dispersals of protests; attacks on independent media; and a widening rift between society and state leadership.