Georgia preparing laws to ban ‘LGBTQ movement’

Georgia has introduced a set of bills against propaganda and gender reassignment.

The speaker of the Georgian parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, has announced a sweeping initiative aimed at protecting traditional family values, in a move branded by critics as another Russia-inspired crackdown.

The set of proposals includes a ban on gay marriage and the adoption of minors by homosexual couples. In addition, the ruling Georgian Dream party seeks to ban LGBTQ and incest propaganda aimed at minors, and to prohibit broadcasters and advertisers from airing intimate same-sex scenes. Reassignment surgery and changing gender in official documents would also be banned under the proposals.

“Today, the parliamentary majority is initiating a package of bills on Family Values and Protection of Minors, which consists of one main bill… and 18 related bills that amend various laws, civil code, labor code, education legislation and so on,” Papuashvili said at a government briefing on Tuesday.

According to Papuashvili, the proposed bill may be passed in its first reading as early as this month.

Western media have already branded the proposals a “Russian-style crackdown,” pointing at how Moscow has increasingly tightened its legislation on “LGBT propaganda” since the early 2010s, first banning its dissemination among minors and ultimately expanding the prohibition to adults in 2022. Last November, the Russian Supreme Court designated the “international LGBT public movement” as an extremist group.

On Monday, Papuashvili signed into law a controversial bill on foreign agent transparency, after lawmakers voted last week to override a veto by President Salome Zourabichvili. It requires NGOs and media organizations that receive at least 20% of their funding from abroad to disclose this fact to the public.

Opponents of the new law, including the president, have branded it “Russian” and an attack on democracy. Supporters have countered that it is similar to what some Western countries, including the US, have in place.

The actions taken by Tbilisi against so-called ‘foreign agents’ will “fundamentally alter the US relationship with Georgia,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a briefing on Monday. Washington has launched a review of its ties with the South Caucasus nation, which is an EU and NATO hopeful, he added.

In 2018, Georgia amended the constitution to explicitly define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The ruling party now wants to introduce further changes, which would require support from the opposition to achieve a three-quarters majority vote in the parliament.

Georgia applied to join the EU in 2022 and was granted candidate status a year later. The bloc’s members have repeatedly criticized the treatment of the LGBTQ community in the country, where pride events are regularly met with threats and counter-protests.

Image credit: Max Kukurudziak