Georgia has a sad record of homophobia. The rapprochement with the West had at least made available to members of the LGBTQ+ community a legal framework that guaranteed their rights. The advent of the Georgian Dream caused a progressive deterioration of their situation, and the 2024 elections were the straw that broke the camel’s back. A highly homophobic election campaign has left in traces of the collapse of their rights, by law.

Georgia represents a quite unique scenario that made it a very hostile country for the LGBTQ+ community. Its social environment is dominated by an overly ultra-conservative Church on one side, and on the other a civil society traumatized by centuries of Russian (Tsarist and Soviet) colonization which reinforced homophobic attitudes. On the top of it, Georgia has a form of government which still struggles to include effective mechanism of protection of human rights, and a painful, uncompleted transition to a democratic model.   

This unfortunate combination that led Georgia to be rated in 2021 by the Caucasus Resource Research Centre as the most homophobic country surveyed: worse than Russia and other notorious countries which are the leaders of the homophobic narrative.

One step forward…

Following its independence, the country sought membership in various regional and international organizations to gain political recognition and legitimacy. Georgia became a member of both the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe (CoE). During this process, Georgia integrated human rights principles into its legal system and adopted new laws accordingly. The country’s ambitions to join NATO and the European Union added further pressure on the government to ensure that protections for sexual minorities met Western standards. 

Homosexuality was decriminalized in 2000 to comply with the norms of the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights. Since 2006, the Georgian Labour Code has included a provision prohibiting discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation. Additionally, changes to the Criminal Code in 2012 established that crimes motivated by someone’s sexual orientation should be considered aggravating factors, warranting harsher penalties during sentencing. In 2014, the Georgian Parliament passed a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, the Law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination. This legislative move was encouraged by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) as part of the conditions for completing the Visa Liberalization Action Plan between Georgia and the European Union. The law was met with resistance, notably from the Georgian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Ilia II voiced his disapproval, stating that the law would not be accepted by believers and accusing the legislation of enshrining immorality as legal, which he viewed as a grave sin.

In July 2017, Georgia’s Constitutional Court ruled against the ban preventing gay and bisexual men from donating blood, declaring the restriction unconstitutional. 

… and two steps back

Despite these advances, the rights of the LGBTQ+ community remain largely theoretical. The introduction of anti-discrimination laws has paradoxically led to an increase in rights violations. Rather than sparking dialogue on inclusivity, the laws are perceived by parts of society as being imposed from abroad, leading to a further deterioration in the practical rights of the LGBTQ+ population. 

This trend is in countertendency with what is generally observed in countries where more inclusive legislation is being adopted, but it is a common feature with most post-Soviet states. Ekaterine Aghdgomeilashvili of the Women’s Initiative Supporting Group notes that: “[LGBTQ+ rights] the notion entails introducing new, special rights, which will “subjugate” the rights of other citizens. Such a view is very common especially in Post-Communist and so-called “weak” democracies, where issues dealing with sexual orientation/gender identity, even at policy level, are discussed in a frame of public morals, religion, and traditions, rather than in the context of equal rights. Politicians in power disguise their lack of political will with regards to anti-discrimination norms and LGBT persons’ rights with rhetoric on the importance and necessity of protecting social and moral norms” from the depravity of Western democracies. [1] 

Current trends in legislation are showing a deteriorating process. Instead of becoming more inclusive, Georgia is back on the track of excluding the LGBTQ+ community from common rights.

The Georgian Dream and Homophobia

The Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, is flirting with radical right position. Its Prime Ministers participated two years in row to the Conservative Political Action Conference held in Hungary, where the main conservative forces meet. The first to attend, Irakli Garibashvili, held a speech against LGBTQ+ propaganda and later suggested to promote a LGBTQ+-prevention education in Georgian kindergartens. 

Because of this strong homophobic stance the Georgian Dream lost its affiliation in the European parties family. Georgian Dream was voted out of the European Socialists. (https://pes.eu/pes/pes-presidency-strips-georgian-dream-of-observer-membership/)

Since in power, the Georgian Dream party has taken steps to enhance an anti-LGBTQ+ agenda. Formerly, article 36 of the Constitution defined marriage based on equal rights of the spouses, but it was amended so that marriage must be between a man and a woman. The amendment was the flagship of a campaign to “resist moral colonization” from the West. Legally nothing changed: Article 1106 of the Civil Code already defined marriage as a voluntary union between a woman and a man for the purpose of creating a family. Therefore, gay marriages were not permitted before the constitutional amendment. 

The inclusion of this provision in the Basic Law is a clear sign – a sign of constitutional weight – of the will to perpetrate the traditional family pattern regardless of the unequal treatment it implies for sexual minorities. 

2024 Electoral developments

Homophobia has been used by the Georgian Dream as one of the main pillars of its election campaign, starting early in spring 2023 with the foreign agent law. The highly contested legal measure was from the very beginning openly claimed to be against West-funded NGOs “promoting homosexuality” in Georgia. The government also put together the law “On Protection of Family Values and Minors” a package which remind of the notorious law adopted in Russia on homosexual propaganda. This package includes a basic legislation and 18 amendments related to various Georgian laws, including on labour and education. 

The Parliament of Georgia passed the proposed bill in the first reading in June, and then in September it voted 81-0 the bill in the second reading, and in the third and final reading with 84 votes in favour, 0 votes against. The Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili refused to sign the law, to avoid a new vote in the parliament to override her veto. Allegedly, her aim was to hamper a new flagship anti-LGBTQ+ debate in the peak of the parliamentary electoral campaign. Homophobia matters, in terms of political consensus and it’s a cheap trick to gain votes.  

The package “On Protection of Family Values and Minors” bans alternative forms of marriage and prevent people who identify as something other than their gender or non-heterosexual people, including single people, from adopting a child. It also aims to prevent a person’s sex from being identified as different from their biological sex in state-issued documents, to ban gender reassignment surgery or other medical interventions. It bans as well “LGBTQ+ propaganda” in educational institutions, but also on television, public information channels, and advertising. This includes any information that promotes cross-sex identification and same-sex relationships. 

To this end, the package of laws prohibits gatherings and demonstrations that promote gender identification other than biological sex. The fate of Pride events is therefore very precarious, after having already been transformed into a manhunt by homophobic groups. This happened whatever form the Pride took, from marches in public space, to cultural event in closed, private ones, from 2013 to 2023. No pride was effectively protected by the government, therefore – in view of the Autumn elections, the pride month was not organized at all. Its organizers anticipated that pre-election period would be filled with physical violence encouraged by the government and rhetoric filled with hate and hostility. Their assessment was accurate. 

Homophobia was the leit motiv of the Georgian Dream political campaign. The party honorary chairman and tycoon, Bidzina Ivanishvili, called the tune, stating during one electoral speech that “Anti-Christian forces are trying to erase all identities of nations, states, and individuals. […] the so-called civil partnership of same-sex people, adoption of a child by the LGBT couple, sex change operations, LGBT propaganda in the media and schools, etc.” must be banned by the Constitution.

Post electoral scenario

The expected impact of the package, in view of the Russian precedent, is an additional stigmatization of homosexuality and a recrudescent hate and violence towards the community. 

The adoption of the package has been followed by strong remarks by international partners.

The Georgian Dream has also initiated an amendment to the Georgian Constitution, which will stipulate that “the protection of family values and minors shall be ensured by constitutional law” and the corresponding constitutional law. 

In June the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe published its opinion on the core law and amendments. The Commission called on the Georgian government “reconsider this legislative proposal entirely and to not proceed with its adoption” or, if it proceeds with its adoption, to remove/modify some of the articles in a way that ensures non-discrimination of LGBTI people and compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights. 

The election results stuck the LGBTQ+ community where the homophobic political campaign made them land. Had the opposition been declared the winner of the elections, the package “On Protection of Family Values and Minors” could have been withdrawn, not because it’s unpopular, but because the Georgian Charter, promoted by President Zurabishvili pledged to cancel all laws negatively impacting Georgian EU integration. 

The incumbent Georgian Dream party has been declared as the election winner but not with the Constitutional majority it advocated all through the election campaign, to pass the new anti-LGBTQ+ constitutional amendment. 

Electoral results are contested,  and it is clear that the next legislature and government will have an uneasy, or illegitimate, or partially illegitimate start, with no opposition taking part to their creation. In this addled context, the only adamant evidence is that 2024 marks a new low in LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia. The existence and right to be of a Georgian LGBTQ+ community have been so politicized and so ingrained of geopolitical significances, that the community itself is increasingly exposed to prejudices, hostile environments (virtual, in person), and at risk. 

2024 Georgia is not a safe country for LGBTQ+ members, and its post-electoral campaign legislation does not enable them to enjoy their full rights as citizens. 

Contributed by Dr. Marilisa Lorusso

[1] Women’s Initiative Supporting Group, From Prejudice to Equality, Tbilisi, 2016.