Georgian lawmakers approved the third and final reading of a law on “family values and the protection of minors” that would impose sweeping curbs on LGBT rights. Photo used for representation purpose only.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Georgian lawmakers on Tuesday (September 17, 2024) approved the third and final reading of a law on “family values and the protection of minors” that would impose sweeping curbs on LGBT rights.

The bill would provide a legal basis for authorities to outlaw Pride events and public displays of the LGBT rainbow flag, and to impose censorship of films and books.

Leaders of the governing Georgian Dream party say it is needed to safeguard traditional moral standards in Georgia, whose deeply conservative Orthodox Church is highly influential.

Activists say the measure is aimed at boosting conservative support for the government ahead of a parliamentary election on Oct. 26 in Georgia, a country that has ambitions to join the European Union but which Western governments fear is now tilting back towards Russia.

Tamara Jakeli, director of campaign group Tbilisi Pride, said the bill, which also restates an existing ban on same-sex marriage and bans gender reassignment surgery, would likely force her organisation to close its doors.

“This law is the most terrible thing to happen to the LGBT community in Georgia,” Jakeli, 28, told Reuters. “We will most likely have to shut down. There is no way for us to continue functioning.”

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, a critic of Georgian Dream whose powers are mostly ceremonial, has indicated that she will block the bill. But Georgian Dream and its allies have enough seats in parliament to override her veto.

LGBT rights are a fraught topic in Georgia, where polls show broad disapproval of same-sex relationships, and the constitution bans same-sex marriage. Participants in Tbilisi’s annual Pride marches have come under physical attack by anti-LGBT protesters in recent years.

Foreign agents

The issue has become more prominent ahead of October’s election, where Georgian Dream is seeking a fourth term in office and is campaigning heavily against LGBT rights.

The ruling party, whose top candidate for the election is billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, has deepened ties with neighbouring Russia as relations with Western countries have soured.

Earlier this year, it passed a law on “foreign agents” that the European and U.S. critics said is authoritarian and Russian-inspired. Its passage sparked some of the largest 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 later pivoting to more conservative positions, remains Georgia’s most popular, though it has lost ground since 2020, when it won a narrow majority in parliament.

In one ruling party advert aired on Georgian television, Pride director Jakeli’s face is shown alongside the words: “No to moral degradation”.

Jakeli said that the bill could only be stopped if Georgian Dream were to lose power in October, though she noted that the country’s opposition parties are not overtly supportive of LGBT rights.

“The only way we can survive in this country and have any progress on LGBT rights is for us to go in great numbers to the elections and vote for change,” she said.

Tbilisi:

Georgia’s parliament on Tuesday adopted a controversial “foreign influence” law that has sparked weeks of mass protests against the measure, which Brussels has warned would undermine Tbilisi’s European aspirations.

Lawmakers voted 84 to 30 to pass in its third and final reading the law, which was widely denounced as mirroring repressive Russian legislation used to silence dissent.

The vote came as street protests continued outside the building for more than a month.

Scuffles had broken out inside the chamber earlier as opposition MPs, who strongly oppose the measure, clashed with lawmakers from the ruling Georgian Dream party ahead of the vote.

And there were also clashes between riot police and protesters outside the building in the centre of Tbilisi.

Critics say the bill is a symbol of the ex-Soviet republic’s drift closer to Russia’s orbit over recent years.

Around 2,000 mainly young protesters gathered outside parliament for another day of protests on Tuesday.

“No to the Russian law,” they chanted as news that the parliament had adopted the bill spread through the crowd.

Tbilisi has seen weeks of mass rallies over the bill that culminated on Saturday, when up to 100,000 people took to the streets in the largest anti-government rally in Georgia’s recent history.

The EU has said the law is “incompatible” with Georgia’s longstanding bid for joining the 27-nation bloc, while Washington has warned its adoption would signal Tbilisi’s departure from the Western orbit.

Both protesters and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze have vowed not to back down.

“We will protest until this Russian government will leave our country,” said 20-year-old Salome outside parliament on Tuesday.

Fresh rallies have been called for Tuesday evening.

– Fears for EU integration –

The bill requires NGOs and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as bodies “pursuing the interests of a foreign power”.

Russia has used a similar law to silence public figures and organisations that disagree with or deviate from the Kremlin’s views.

The EU repeated on Tuesday its position that the bill undermines Tbilisi’s desire to move closer to the bloc.

“EU member countries are very clear that if this law is adopted it will be a serious obstacle for Georgia in its European perspective,” said its spokesman, Peter Stano. 

Last year, Georgia was granted official EU candidacy, and Brussels is set to decide in December on the formal launch of accession talks — an unlikely prospect after the law’s adoption.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili — who is at loggerheads with the government — has vowed to veto the law, though Georgian Dream has enough MPs to override it.

Young Georgians have voiced outrage over the possibility that a future closer to Europe is at risk.

“We were five years old when the war with Russia happened. We have bad childhood memories of that,” Doborjginidze said, referring to Moscow’s 2008 invasion of Georgia.

Georgian society is staunchly anti-Kremlin. Georgia’s bid for membership of the EU and NATO is enshrined in its constitution and — according to opinion polls — supported by more than 80 percent of the population.

Georgian Dream backed down from pushing through a similar “foreign agents” law a year ago in the face of massive street rallies.

NGOs and government critics have reported months of intimidation and harassment in the run-up to the bill being reintroduced in a targeted campaign that has escalated amid the tensions.

– ‘Worried but not scared’ –

Georgian Dream has depicted the protesters as violent mobs, has insisted it is committed to joining the EU, and has said the bill is aimed at increasing transparency of NGO funding. 

But the party’s main backer Bidzina Ivanishvili — a secretive figure who made his fortune in 1990s Russia — made an anti-Western speech last month and has accused NGOs of plotting a revolution with Western backing. 

The controversy surrounding the bill comes five months before a parliamentary election seen as a crucial democratic test for the Black Sea country. 

Some protesters say their ultimate goal is to vote out Georgian Dream, which has been in power since 2012. 

“We are waiting for when we will have a choice to choose a new government,” said 27-year-old hotel manager Peter, who declined to give his last name over fears for his security.

“These people in there don’t listen to us at all,” said teacher Mariam Javakhishvili, standing outside parliament with her son.

The 34-year-old said the ruling party lawmakers were undoing progress made since the collapse of the Soviet Union, adding: “I don’t want to let that happen for my kids.”

“I’m worried about police violence but I’m not scared of it.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)