Georgia wants to ban LGBTQ+ "propaganda", as Russia did

After the passage of the law on foreign influences, known as the “Russian law”, the majority party in Georgia now wants to ban same-sex marriage and gender change.

After the highly contested law on foreign influences, renamed “Russian law” e approved overriding President Salomé Zourabichvili's veto, in Georgia the majority party Georgian dream presented another bill very similar to legislation already in force in Russia and which aims to ban "LGBT propaganda".

The news came from the president of parliament Shalva Papuashvili, which he explained that they will be prohibited same-sex marriages, adoptions for homosexual couples, surgical interventions for gender transition, sex change on documents and "propaganda" lgbtq+ in newspapers, in schools, in assemblies, during protests and in the workplace.

Papuashvili has added that the bill will be discussed and approved in the first reading already in the spring session, which will end on 28 June, and that it will then be approved in the second and third reading in the autumn session which will begin on 3 September.

In Georgia another law like in Russia

As already happened with the highly contested law on the "transparency of foreign influence", which requires organizations to register in a special list if they receive more than twenty percent of funding from abroad, the new bill against LGBTQ+ propaganda also seems follow the regulatory path followed by Russia, culminating with the recent banned of the "international movement" LGBTQ+:today in Russia gay, lesbian, queer and transgender people and all those who defend the equal rights for the rainbow community they risk up to ten years of imprisonment.

In Georgia the majority party seems intent on going further, also banning the dissemination of information relating to incest between heterosexual people.

Human rights and propaganda

After the news, the Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze he declared to the press that “a very clear distinction must be made between the protection of human rights and propaganda."

Human rights are protected in Georgia and must be strictly protected.This applies to anyone, regardless of their lifestyle.But propaganda is unacceptable, and the law is precisely about propaganda.

Irakli Kobakhidze

The speaker of the Georgian parliament Shalva Papuashvili then added that the government intends to declare national holiday Family Purity Day, a celebration that is turning point on May 17, 2024 at the initiative of the Orthodox Church in response to demonstrations of squares that were held against the law on foreign influences, whose approval now risks hindering Georgia's integration into theEuropean Union.