A participant in Europride in 2019 wearing the logo of “Tbilisi Pride,” the top Georgian LGBTQ advocacy organization in the country of Georgia. – Photo: Bojan Cvetanović, via Wikimedia/Creative Commons.
The Georgian parliament has passed a sweeping bill that seeks to curtail the rights of LGBTQ people in the Eastern European country. The legislation is virtually identical to similar laws passed in neighboring Russia.
It seeks to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying and adopting children, bans public endorsements and advocacy on behalf of LGBTQ rights, and prohibits positive or neutral depictions of LGBTQ individuals or information about same-sex relations in the media.
The provisions mean the bill would likely outlaw Pride events, could punish displays of the Pride flag, and would allow the government to censor films or books with LGBTQ characters.
Tamar Jakeli, the director of Tbilisi Pride, told Reuters that the bill would likely force her organization to shut down.
The bill also bans access to gender-affirming care for all people — even adults — and prohibits changing the gender marker on people’s official documents to align with their gender identity rather than their assigned sex at birth.
Parliamentary leaders of the governing Georgian Dream party say the legislation is needed to uphold traditional moral values, foster and support the family unit, and protect minors from being unduly influenced by visible displays of LGBTQ identity.
As in Russia, the restrictions on LGBTQ rights and visibility are strongly supported by the Orthodox Church, which wields great influence in Georgian society.
The anti-LGBTQ bill now heads to President Salome Zourabichvili to be signed into law.
Although Georgian Dream backed her in her last election, she has at times butted heads with leaders of the ruling party, criticizing measures like the “foreign influence” law for delaying Georgia’s attempts to join the European Union. Zourabichvili could choose to veto the anti-LGBTQ bill, but could see her veto overridden. It remains unclear what action she will take.
Georgia’s constitution states that “marriage is based on the legal equality and free will of the spouses” but does not explicitly ban same-sex marriage. However, the country’s civil code defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
While the anti-LGBTQ bill does not have the power to change the constitution, its prohibition on same-sex marriage is more explicit — serving a “messaging” document for Georgian Dream that is intended to help the party appeal to social conservatives ahead of the Oct. 26 parliamentary election.
