Speaker of Georgia’s parliament signed into law a bill that restricts the rights of LGBTQ people, despite warnings from the EU.
Gatekeepers News reports that this move came after Georgia’s president, Salome Zurabishvili, who has clashed with the ruling party, refused to sign the bill the day before.
The new law is similar to Russia’s “gay propaganda” law and includes provisions banning gender reassignment and invalidating same-s3x marriages performed abroad or on Georgian territory.
“In conformity with the constitution, I signed today the law ‘on family values and the protection of minors’, which Salome Zurabishvili didn’t sign,” speaker Shalva Papuashvili said on Facebook.
The ruling Georgian Dream pushed the bill through parliament last month, a vote boycotted by the opposition and which has fuelled tensions ahead of crucial October 26 parliamentary elections.
Papuashvili said the measure “is based on common sense, historical experience and centuries-old Christian, Georgian, and European values, rather than on changeable ideas and ideologies”.
He claimed that the “law protects the rights of all citizens”.
However, rights groups and Western countries have said that it is discriminatory and creates a dangerous environment for LGBTQ people.
Last month, a well-known Georgian transgender woman was stabbed to death, an attack that came during the push for the law.
The bill also comes after Tbilisi’s recent adoption of an anti-NGO “foreign influence law”, which triggered weeks of mass anti-government protests and Western condemnation.
Critics accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of moving closer into the Kremlin’s orbit and jeopardising Georgia’s bid for EU membership.
AFP
