Pro-LGBT activists rally in front of the Georgian parliament building in Tbilisi, 6 July 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/ZURAB KURTSIKIDZE
The Georgian parliament has approved the third and final reading of a package of 19 draft laws which, according to the ruling Georgian Dream party, are aimed at promoting “family values” and the “protection of minors”, Georgian online media outlet Publika reported on Tuesday.
The bills will introduce a specific ban on same-sex marriage and adoption in the country, as well as on providing gender reassignment surgery and will make the dissemination of so-called “LGBT propaganda” and the promotion of queer identities in schools and the media an offence.
A total of 84 deputies voted for the package, giving it a comfortable majority in the 150-member chamber. Most opposition politicians chose to boycott the vote and did not attend the session. The package will now go to the country’s president, Salome Zourabichivili, who is expected to veto the legislation, after which Georgian Dream is likely to vote to override her veto.
The proposed laws are mirror images of anti-LGBT laws brought in by the Kremlin in recent years, which led to the Russian Supreme Court declaring the “international LGBT social movement” an “extremist organisation” in November.
Georgian Dream’s founder and honorary chairman, the Russia-linked oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, has been increasingly shifting his political focus towards Moscow and away from Europe in the past year, despite research which suggests that over 90% of Georgians see their future in Europe.
In July, the EU suspended Georgia’s accession talks to join the bloc following the Tbilisi government successfully pushing through a deeply unpopular “foreign agents” law, which was also very similar to the Russian legislation that has been used by the Kremlin to silence dissenting civil society organisations.
