TBILISI – Georgian lawmakers on Tuesday approved the third and final reading of a law on “family values and protection of minors” that imposes a radical curb on LGBTQ rights.
The bill provides a legal basis for authorities to ban Pride events and public displays of the LGBT rainbow flag, and to impose censorship of films and books.
Leaders of the ruling Georgian Dream party say it is necessary to safeguard traditional moral standards in Georgia, where the highly conservative Orthodox Church is highly influential.
Activists say the move is aimed at bolstering conservative support for the government ahead of parliamentary elections on October 26 in Georgia, a country that has ambitions to join the European Union but that Western governments fear is now leaning towards Russia.
Tamara Jakeli, director of the Tbilisi Pride campaign group, said the bill, which also reinstates an existing ban on same-sex marriage and bans sex reassignment surgery, would likely force her organization to close its doors.
“This law is the most terrible thing to happen to the LGBT community in Georgia,” Jakeli, 28, told Reuters. “Most likely we will have to close. There is no way for us to continue to operate.”
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, a critic of the Georgian dream whose powers are mostly ceremonial, has indicated that she will block the project. But Georgian Dream and its allies have enough seats in parliament to override their veto.
LGBT rights are a hot topic in Georgia, where polls show widespread disapproval of same-sex relationships, and the constitution bans same-sex marriage. Participants in Tbilisi’s annual Pride marches have been subjected to physical attack by anti-LGBT protesters in recent years.
The issue has become more prominent ahead of the October elections, where Georgian Dream is seeking a fourth term and is campaigning strongly against LGBT rights.
The ruling party, whose leading candidate for the election is billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, deepened ties with neighboring Russia as relations with Western countries worsened.
Earlier this year, he passed a law on “foreign agents” that European and American critics said was authoritarian and Russian-inspired. His passage sparked some of the biggest protests Georgia has seen since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Opinion polls show the party, which in 2014 passed a law banning anti-LGBT discrimination before pivoting to more conservative positions, remains the most popular in Georgia, although it has lost ground since the 2020, when he won a narrow majority in parliament.
In a ruling party ad aired on Georgian television, Pride director Jakeli’s face is shown next to the words: “No to moral degradation.”
Jakeli said the bill could only be signed if Georgian Dream loses power in October, although he noted that the country’s opposition parties do not openly support LGBT rights.
“The only way we can survive in this country and make any progress on LGBT rights is to go to the polls in large numbers and vote for change,” he said.