Georgia’s parliament on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, approved a law on “family values and the protection of minors” that would restrict LGBTQ+ rights.
The law would allow authorities to outlaw Pride events and public displays of the LGBTQ+ flag and censor the media.
The package of legal changes, which came under the title On Family Values And Protection Of Minors, amends 18 current laws, including on free speech and expression, as well as broadcasting.
It allows for bans on gatherings that promote the notion of a person identifying as a gender other than “his or her biological sex” or same-sex orientation or relationships.
The draft law defines issues related to marriage, adoption and foster care of minors, use of “medical manipulation” to assign a person to a gender different from their biological sex, indications of gender in documents issued by the state, public gatherings and demonstrations related to gender identities, “neglect of biological sex” within the framework of labour relations, and more.
The legislative package also designates May 17 as the Day of Family Purity and Respect for Parents.
The move comes a little over a month before Georgia’s next parliamentary election due for October 26.
Critics have compared the law to similar ones adopted in neighboring Russia, where “non-traditional sexual relations”and LGBTQ+ activism are banned.
Georgian Dream party leaders say the law is needed to safeguard Georgia’s traditional moral values.
Georgia is a predominantly Christian country where the Georgian Orthodox Church holds substantial sway.
Lawmakers from the ruling Georgian Dream party voted 84 to 0 to approve the legislation in a vote boycotted by the opposition.
The majority of opposition MPs did not attend the plenary session as they are boycotting parliamentary work following the adoption of the foreign agents law.
Earlier this year, Georgia passed a controversial “foreign agents” law that the opposition, the European Union and the US criticized as authoritarian, alleging it was inspired by a similar law in Russia.
The bill sparked some of the largest protests in the Caucasian country since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Anti-LGTBQ+ Bill Decried
A group of protesters outside the parliament building in downtown Tbilisi on September 17 held signs decrying the draft legislation as ignoring the real problems of Georgian families.
Prior to the adoption of the law, 32 civil society organizations issued a statement condemning the legislative package.
The CSOs stated that the ruling Georgian Dream is pushing for the adoption of this package with the aim of “manipulating the public before the elections, covering up real problems, inciting irrational fear and creating another obstacle on the road to the country’s European integration”.
The organizations underlined that the legislative package entitled “On the Protection of Family Values and Minors” does not in fact provide a real solution to the problems faced by families in Georgia, such as poverty, inflation, high migration rate, lack of infrastructure necessary for a decent life, education, etc.
“The only way to respond to these and other real challenges is to make principled and determined progress on the path of Georgia’s European integration – exactly what the government is trying to prevent, including with this legislative package,” the civil society organizations noted.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, a former ally of Georgian Dream who has become openly critical of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s government, has indicated she plans to block the bill. However, Georgian Dream has enough support in parliament to override her veto.
In Georgia, the office of President is largely ceremonial and most power lies in the hands of the Prime Minister.
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