Sawt Falasteen - Georgia signs into law bill seen by EU as anti-LGBTQ

The legislation, which has been compared to repressive Russian laws, is the latest anti-liberal measure from the governing Georgian Dream party ahead of parliamentary elections this month.

The speaker of Georgia's parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, posted on Facebook that he had signed the "family values" bill into law, a day after the country's pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili refused to do so.

Zurabishvili -- at loggerheads with the government -- told AFP by telephone Thursday that the measure was "contrary to the spirit and letter of the European recommendations" tabled by Brussels as a precondition for opening membership talks with Tbilisi.

She said the bill was listed, among other anti-democratic measures, in a charter signed under her mediation by opposition parties "as the ones that will need to be repealed once the four pro-European opposition parties come to power" in parliamentary elections set for October 26.

The measures are similar to Russia's "gay propaganda" law, further fuelling accusations that Tbilisi has moved closer to Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine.

The law restricts the "propaganda of same-sex relationships and incest" in educational institutions and on television.

Rights groups have slammed the wording for equating homosexual relationships with incest.

It also bans gender transition and adoption by gay and transgender people, and nullifies same-sex marriages performed abroad.

- Dangerous environment -

Georgian Dream pushed the bill through parliament last month in a vote boycotted by the opposition, which reignited tensions ahead of the parliamentary elections.

Controlled by the secretive billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream is seeking a super-majority that would allow it to constitutionally ban pro-Western opposition parties.

Papuashvili, the parliament speaker, rejected criticism that the law went against European values.

The latest measures are "based on common sense, historical experience and centuries-old Christian, Georgian and European values, rather than on changeable ideas and ideologies", he said, adding that the "law protects the rights of all citizens".

But rights groups and Western countries have said it is discriminatory and creates a dangerous environment for LGBTQ people.

Last month, a well-known Georgian transgender woman was stabbed to death in her apartment a day after the parliament voted to approve the bill.

- 'Stigmatisation and discrimination' -

Tbilisi has increasingly clashed with Brussels in recent years, even as the EU granted the country official "candidate status" in 2023.

Earlier this year the Black Sea nation passed an anti-NGO "foreign influence" law, triggering weeks of mass anti-government protests and Western condemnation.

Brussels has repeatedly warned that with such measures Georgia is drifting away from its stated ambition of joining the EU.

Last month, it said the LGBTQ bill "undermines fundamental rights of Georgians and risks further stigmatisation and discrimination of part of the population".

It warned that the law would have "important repercussions" for Tbilisi's European integration path and "place further strain on EU-Georgia relations".

The United States has also pushed back against Tbilisi.

In September, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced visa restrictions on 60 Georgians, including senior government figures who he said were "responsible for, or complicit in, undermining democracy in Georgia".

"We remain concerned about human rights abuses and anti-democratic actions in Georgia, and we will continue to consider additional actions in response," Blinken said in a statement.

Georgia's Prime Minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, has threatened that the longtime West-leaning country could "revise" its ties with the US if Washington imposes more sanctions on Georgian officials.

Having initially pursued a liberal pro-Western policy agenda when it came to power in 2012, Georgian Dream has intensified its anti-West and anti-liberal positions over the last two years.

F.AbuZaid--SF-PST