LONDON, Sep 30 (IPS) – Georgia’s ruling party has put LGBTQI+ people firmly in the firing line ahead of next month’s elections. On September 17, parliament issued a decision final approval to a highly discriminatory law that gives authorities the power to censor books and films with LGBTQI+ content, stop discussion of LGBTQI+ issues in schools, ban people from flying rainbow flags and prevent Pride events. The law excludes LGBTQI+ people from adopting children, bans gender confirmation surgeries and refuses to recognize same-sex marriages of Georgians performed abroad.
Latest disturbing development
Georgia’s anti-LGBTQI+ law infringements a wide range of international human rights obligations. And it is recidivism: a bill in May became law designating civil society organizations and media groups that receive at least 20 percent of funding from international sources as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power.” The ‘foreign agents’ law will enable defamation, arouse public suspicion and embroil organizations in lengthy compliance procedures.
President Salome Zourabichvili, who is independent of the ruling Georgian Dream party, vetoed the foreign agents bill, calling it a “Russian law,” also the view of the mass protest movement that opposed it. But presidential power is weak and parliament quickly overturned the veto. Zourabichvili – Georgia’s last directly elected president, and future presidents will be chosen by parliament after her term ends in October – has also pledged to veto the anti-LGBTQI+ law. But a similar parliamentary override seems certain.
Georgia Dream says its anti-LGBTQI+ law, known as the “Family Values and the Protection of Minors” Act, is necessary to defend “traditional moral norms.” It also said the foreign agents law was necessary to prevent international financiers from sponsoring “LGBT propaganda” and fueling the revolution.
Both laws are part of a growing climate of state hostility toward civil society, in a country that once stood out as an ex-Soviet state that broadly respected civil liberties. Last year, the European Union (EU)-Georgia Civil Society Platform – a body set up as part of the negotiations on the country’s possible accession to the EU – criticized a persistent smear campaign by the government against civil society. Freedom House pointed to increasing intimidation and violence against journalists.
The anti-LGBTQI+ law reflects a reassertion of the influence of the Georgian Orthodox Church, the country’s dominant religion, and a closer alignment with Russia. The Foreign Agents Law imitates the law introduced in Russia in 2012 that paved the way for intense repression of civil society, while Georgia’s anti-LGBTQI+ law is also strikingly similar to the law introduced in 2013 was adopted in Russia. widely used to criminalize and silence LGBTQI+ people.
The two laws can only push the country further away from its stated goal of joining the EU. They place Georgia at a crossroads: the government and the church clearly see it as a socially conservative country that rightly belongs in the Russian sphere of influence. But others – the many people, overwhelming youngwho have protested and confronted state violence in return – representing a different Georgian identity: one that is democratic, inclusive and European.
Slander and violence
Hostility has made it harder for Georgia’s LGBTQI+ people to claim visibility. Last year, violent far-right attacks forced the cancellation of the Tbilisi Pride parade. Authorities have consistently failed to ensure the safety of participants. When people first marched on May 17, 2013, they were attacked by a crowd that included clergy. Also extremist groups in 2021 attacked journalists covering the event while the police stood by and did nothing.
In 2014, the year after Pride was first mobilized, the Church declared May 17 the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia – Family Purity Day, an event marked with a holiday. This year Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze connected thousands during the Family Purity Day march in Tbilisi. In contrast, there was great hostility among the organizers of the Tbilisi Pride decided to organize virtual events only. LGBTQI+ people have been denied the opportunity to do exactly what Pride events exist to do: ensure visibility and normalize their public presence.
The new law undoes a number of things recent progress Civil society has succeeded in changing homophobic social values, with young people in particular showing a more tolerant attitude. But now the law will have the effect that similar legislation has had elsewhere: giving the green light to stigmatization, vilification and violence. Activists have pointed to the recent murder of one of the country’s few high-profile transgender people, a model Kesaria Abramidzeas a grim sign of things to come. Extremist groups can only be emboldened, confident that the law will be on their side when they commit acts of hatred.
The upcoming elections
Georgian Dream is seeking a fourth consecutive term in office when the country goes to the polls in October. Now that the opposition is divided, it seems certain that they will come first again. But support fell at the last election and polls show it has lost more votes since then. Possibly concerned about maintaining its majority, it has chosen to smear an already excluded group of people.
Georgian Dream might think that hostility toward LGBTQI+ people and civil society groups is safer electoral territory than a more explicitly anti-Western, pro-Russian position. But the recent decisions indicate how the country will govern if its electoral strategy bears fruit: not by defending the rights of all Georgians, but by putting the interests of its social conservative supporters first, and by tailoring policies to please Vladimir Putin.
Georgian Dream still pays lip service to the idea of joining the EU, but the party’s billionaire financier and behind-the-scenes leader Bidzina Ivanishvili recently made his position clear, accusing Western countries of being part of a global conspiracy to drag Georgia into a repeat. of the ill-fated 2008 war with Russia. Georgian-Russian relations have heated up since Russia launched its all-out war against Ukraine in 2022.
The EU, for its part, responded to the foreign agents law by suspending financial aid and accession negotiations with Georgia. It must take a strong stand and make it clear that Georgia will not be able to join until the human rights of all its people are recognized and civil society is respected.
Andreas Firmin is CIVICUS editor-in-chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS lens and co-author of Report on the state of civil society.
A longer version of this article is available here.
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service