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Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, unveiled a bill on Monday that, if passed, will limit the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the Eastern European country. Among the proposals contained in the text is the ban on organizing “informative” public meetings on “family or intimate relationships between people of the same sex” as well as on “incest”. Mamuka Mdinaradze, leader of the Georgian Dream parliamentary group and main promoter of the law, he said that the rule is necessary to protect “family values and our future generations” from what he called “pseudo-liberal values.”
Georgia is a country in the South Caucasus that borders Russia to the north and Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan to the south. The majority of the population is conservative in orientation and the Georgian Orthodox Church is still very influential in the country. The proposed law is considered by LGBTQ+ rights organizations and opposition parties as an attempt by the Georgian government to increase its popularity ahead of the elections to be held next October. Commenting on the bill, Mdinaradze also said that it will probably be approved only after the elections.
Georgian Dream has governed the country since 2012 and is currently the favorite party in the elections according to polls, but in recent years its support has decreased quite steadily. Although it presents itself as a pro-European party and is trying to bring Georgia into the European Union, it is increasingly accused of having authoritarian tendencies and wanting to get closer to Russia. Criticism has returned with this proposed law, which resembles those recently introduced by the Russian authorities. However, as in Russia, the situation has been worsening in Georgia regarding the rights of LGBTQ+ people for years.
In July 2023, Pride in the capital Tbilisi was canceled because thousands of militants belonging to the far-right group Alt Info, pro-Russian and affiliated with the Orthodox Church, occupied the space where the event was supposed to be held. Tbilisi Pride had for years been the main demonstration to celebrate the existence, acceptance and fight for the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Georgia. Far-right protesters set fire to some rainbow flags (one of the main symbols of the community), stormed the stage and ransacked the event’s bar. According to the organisers, the police did nothing to block or limit access to the event site for counter-protesters, nor did they stop them before they could interrupt the Pride.
As reported by the Georgian news agency InterPress, lunedì Mamuka Mdinaradze he would have said told journalists that the new bill could make events such as Pride illegal and ban the display of the rainbow flag in some places.