Georgia’s parliament recently approved a law making it virtually impossible for LGBTQI+ people and organisations to take public action. This follows a law it passed earlier this year forcing organisations that receive international funding to declare they’re agents of foreign interests. Both laws closely mimic those previously introduced in Russia; Georgia enjoys improving relations with Russia despite claiming it wants to join the European Union. The new laws have been introduced ahead of an election in October, with the ruling party clearly intent on scapegoating LGBTQI+ people and closing the space for scrutiny.

Georgia’s ruling party has put LGBTQI+ people firmly in the firing line ahead of next month’s parliamentary election. On 17 September, parliament gave final approval to a highly discriminatory law that empowers the authorities to censor books and films with LGBTQI+ content, stop discussion of LGBTQI+ issues in schools, ban people from flying rainbow flags and prevent Pride events. The law excludes LGBTQI+ people from adopting children, bans gender affirmation surgery and refuses to recognise same-sex marriages of Georgians conducted abroad.

Latest troubling development

Georgia’s anti-LGBTQI+ law breaches a wide range of the state’s international human rights commitments. And it’s a repeat offence: in May, a bill became law designating civil society and media groups that receive 20 per cent or more of their funding from international sources as ‘pursuing the interests of a foreign power’.

The ‘foreign agents’ law will enable vilification, fuel public suspicion and tie organisations up in lengthy compliance procedures. The effect will be to hinder civil society and media attempts to scrutinise the government and offer channels for debate and dissent. Civil society organisations may feel they have to leave Georgia or shut down rather than comply with a law that will undermine public trust in them.

President Salome Zourabichvili, who is independent of the ruling Georgian Dream party, vetoed the foreign agents bill, calling it a ‘Russian law’, in line with the views of the mass protest movement that rose up in opposition. But presidential powers are weak, and two weeks later parliament reversed the veto in a vote the opposition boycotted. Zourabichvili – Georgia’s last directly elected president, with future presidents to be picked by parliament after her term ends in October – has also pledged to veto the anti-LGBTQI+ law. But a similar parliamentary override seems certain.

Georgia Dream says its anti-LGBTQI+ law, known as the law on ‘family values and the protection of minors’, is needed to defend ‘traditional moral standards’. It also said its foreign agents law was needed to stop international funders sponsoring ‘LGBT propaganda’ and fomenting revolution, complaining that otherwise money pours in for what it called ‘radical’ organisations ahead of elections.

Both laws are part of a bigger and growing climate of state hostility towards civil society, in a country that once stood out as one of the few ex-Soviet states that broadly respected civic freedoms. Last year, the European Union (EU)-Georgia Civil Society Platform – a body established under the Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia towards the country potentially joining the EU – criticised a sustained government smear campaign against civil society. Freedom House pointed to growing harassment and violence against journalists.

The anti-LGBTQI+ law reflects a reassertion of influence by the Georgian Orthodox Church, the country’s dominant religion, and a closer alignment with Russia. The foreign agents law imitates the one introduced in Russia in 2012, which paved the way for intense repression of civil society, and Georgia’s anti-LGBTQI+ law is also strikingly similar to one introduced in Russia in 2013, which has since been strengthened and used extensively to criminalise and silence LGBTQI+ people.

The two laws can only move the country further away from the government’s stated goal of joining the EU. They place Georgia at a fork in the road: the government and the church clearly see it as a socially conservative country that legitimately belongs in Russia’s orbit. But others – the many people, overwhelmingly young, who’ve protested and faced state violence for doing so – represent a different Georgian identity: one that’s democratic, inclusive and European.

Vilification and violence

Hostility has made it harder for Georgia’s LGBTQI+ people to claim visibility. Last year, violent far-right attacks forced the cancellation of the Tbilisi Pride festival in the capital. The event has long faced violence and vilification, with the authorities consistently failing to ensure the safety of participants. When people first marched on 17 May 2013, they were attacked by a mob that included members of the clergy. In 2021, extremist groups also attacked journalists covering the event, as the police stood by and did nothing. One of those badly beaten, Alexander Lashkarava, died a few days after the attack.

In 2014, the year after Pride first mobilised, the Church declared 17 May – the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia – to be Family Purity Day, an event marked with a public holiday. This year, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze joined thousands of people at the Family Purity Day march in Tbilisi. In contrast, such was the level of hostility that Tbilisi Pride organisers took the decision to only hold virtual events. LGBTQI+ people were denied the chance to do the very thing Pride events exist for: assert visibility and normalise their presence in public space.

The new law reverses some recent progress civil society achieved in shifting homophobic social values, with young people in particular showing more tolerant attitudes. But now the law will have the effect similar legislation has had elsewhere: giving the green light to stigmatisation, vilification and violence. Activists have pointed to the recent murder of one of the country’s few high-profile transgender people, model Kesaria Abramidze, as a grim sign of potential things to come. Extremist groups can only be emboldened, confident the law is on their side when they commit acts of hatred. The new law leaves LGBQTI+ activists with a choice no one should have to make: keep quiet or flee their country.

Voices from the frontline

Tamar Jakeli is director of Tbilisi Pride.

 

The bill’s language is highly discriminatory, as it equates LGBTQI+ rights with incest and other crimes and refers to LGBTQI+ people in derogatory terms. It would make life nearly impossible for LGBTQI+ people in Georgia.

The situation is worsening. For several years we made progress: anti-discrimination legislation was passed and we held Pride festivals with up to 3,000 attendees. We organised community meetings, social gatherings, film screenings and conferences. But the situation has recently deteriorated, as the government has begun to adopt tactics similar to Russia’s, promoting the idea that ‘LGBTQI+ propaganda’ needs to be controlled, leading to increased targeting and oppression of LGBTQI+ people. Many are considering leaving or have already done so, seeking asylum in countries such as Belgium and Germany.

Queer-friendly spaces are now mostly underground, with events held privately due to security concerns. Vandalism and constant threats make public gatherings extremely risky. We are systematically denied the constitutional right to freedom of assembly.

Last year, we organised three events for Pride week: an opening event, an international conference and a Pride festival. The first two were successful, but the festival faced severe security challenges. Despite months of negotiations and promises from top state authorities, far-right groups managed to infiltrate the festival grounds. The police evacuated us and then allowed anti-rights groups to destroy the venue. This was a strategic choice by the government to simultaneously avoid bloodshed and appease conservative factions.

This year, due to pre-election tensions and heightened security risks, we decided not to hold any physical events. Instead, we’re focusing on mobilising young people to vote in the upcoming parliamentary election to prevent further erosion of our rights.

We’ve made progress in creating spaces where queer people can express their true selves, particularly in the underground club culture and nightlife scene. Between 2015 and 2020, we also made notable strides in anti-discrimination legislation and gained inclusion in national human rights texts.

However, in the past few years the government has shamefully erased references to LGBTQI+ people from these vital documents, despite pressure from international human rights bodies. This erasure is a huge step backward, yet we remain hopeful and steadfast in our commitment to fight for equality and acceptance.

 

This is an edited extract of our conversation with Tamar. Read the full interview here.

The upcoming election

When the country goes to the polls in October, Georgian Dream is seeking a fourth consecutive term. With the opposition divided, it seems certain to come first again. But its support fell in the last election in 2020, and opinion polls suggest it’s lost more votes since. Possibly worried about keeping its majority, it’s opted for vilifying an already excluded group of people and restricting civic society.

Georgian Dream may think that hostility towards LGBTQI+ people and civil society groups is safer electoral territory than a more explicitly anti-western, pro-Russian stance. But its recent decisions are ominous. They signal how it will rule if its electoral strategy pays off: not by upholding the rights of all Georgians but by putting the interests of its socially conservative supporters first, and by tailoring its policies to appease Vladimir Putin.

Georgian Dream continues to pay lip service to the idea of joining the EU, but the party’s billionaire financier and behind-the-scenes leader Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in the post-Soviet privatisation scramble, has recently made his position clear, accusing western countries of being part of some kind of global conspiracy to drag Georgia into a repeat of its ill-fated 2008 war with Russia. Georgian-Russian relations have only warmed since Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine in 2022.

The EU, for its part, reacted to the foreign agents law by suspending both financial aid and Georgia’s accession negotiations. It must take a firm line and make clear Georgia won’t be allowed to join until the human rights of all its people are recognised and civil society is respected. The EU must stand with Georgia’s LGBTQI+ people and its many young people hungry for a more progressive future.

OUR CALLS FOR ACTION

  • The government of Georgia should repeal its foreign agents law and anti-LGBTQI+ law.
  • The government should commit to respecting human rights, including civic freedoms, and develop a more constructive relationship with civil society.
  • The European Union should insist that Georgia respect LGBTQI+ rights and civic freedoms as part of any accession negotiations.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

Cover photo by Vano Shlamov/AFP via Getty Images