On Saturday, thousands of militants belonging to the far-right group Alt Info, pro-Russian and affiliated with the Orthodox church, occupied the space where Tbilisi Pride was supposed to be held, the main demonstration to celebrate the existence, acceptance and struggle for the rights of Georgia’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people. Protesters poured into Lisi Wonderland, a large outdoor event space, and set fire to rainbow flags (one of the main symbols of the LGBTQ+ community), broke into the stage and ransacked the event bar. Tbilisi Pride was therefore canceled due to security concerns, people who had already arrived at the venue were evacuated, and militants clashed with the police.
Festival organizers accused Georgia’s Interior Ministry – controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has in the past taken a stand against “LGBTQ+ propaganda” – of having “allowed counter-protesters to prevent us from exercising our freedom to expression and gathering, even in the context of a private event». According to their reconstruction, the police did nothing to block or limit access to the festival site for counter-protesters, nor did they stop them before they could disrupt the Pride. “Today’s developments indicate that the events scheduled for today were pre-coordinated and agreed between the Interior Ministry and the violent group Alt Info,” Tbilisi Pride wrote in a statement.
It is not the first time that the same event has been canceled due to security issues: in 2021 the event was canceled after the local headquarters of two of the groups that had organized the event had been attacked and vandalized by dozens of people opposed the demonstration and several journalists had been injured.
Although Georgia is one of the few countries in the region to explicitly ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ people by law, the community’s situation is very precarious also due to the strong influence of the Orthodox church on society. Various religious leaders have actively incited violence against LGBTQ+ people in the past.
Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Darakhvelidze said the event was not guarded enough due to its geographic location: “Protesters managed to find ways to enter the event area, but we managed to evacuate the Pride participants and organizers. No one was injured in the incident and the police are now taking steps to stabilize the situation.” The day before, the interior ministry had said it would take “appropriate measures to ensure that Saturday’s event was held safely and to protect everyone’s freedom of expression and assembly”. The speaker of the Georgian parliament said that “the police responded adequately” and “guaranteed the safety of both participants and journalists”.
The Georgian government, which would like to join the European Union but has major problems in protecting the rights of minorities and political opposition, has been criticized by many for its poor handling of the incident. British Ambassador to Georgia Mark Clayon called on the government to “ensure that all those who have broken the law and aggressively disrupted a peaceful gathering will be brought to justice”. The United Nations condemned the “violence and attacks on Tbilisi Pride”, calling on the Georgian authorities to “denounce this disturbing incident” and protect the rights of assembly and expression of the country’s LGBTQI+ people.