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Georgia’s Queer Propaganda Law

Georgia’s Queer Propaganda Law

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The European Parliament. Photo: Dato Parulava/OC Media.
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

EU suspends over €120 million in aid to Georgia

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The European Union delegation in Georgia has stated that the country will lose €121 million ($130 million) in EU funding ‘as a result of democratic backsliding’. On Tuesday, an EU representative explained that ‘annual allocations are not all spent in the same year, hence remaining funds from 2022 and 2023 directly benefiting the authorities will be lost’. According to a post on Facebook by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for EU Neighbourhood and Enlargement, the money was ‘w

Bidzina Ivanishvili. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Georgian officials brace for further sanctions

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The threat of further Western sanctions against Georgian officials over democratic backsliding in the country has led to reports of alarm within the ruling Georgian Dream party, weeks ahead of parliamentary elections. On Wednesday, TV channel Formula reported  citing confidential sources that bank accounts abroad belonging to the children of Georgian Dream founder and billionaire, Bidzina Ivanishvili, had been limited. TV station Mtavari Arkhi also reported on Wednesday that Ivanishvili h

Salome Zurabishvili. Photo: via Facebook.
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Zourabichvili refuses to sign Georgian queer propaganda law

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Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has refused to sign the queer propaganda law passed by parliament, nor has she used her presidential powers to veto it. On Wednesday, the presidential administration confirmed to OC Media that the president did not sign the law ‘on protection of family values and minors’. The legislation, passed by parliament on 17 September, would be far-ranging, affecting education, healthcare, media, business, and public gatherings, and would demonstratively prohib

Kesaria Abramidze. Image: Erti ambavi merikostan/Facebook.
Crime

Heartbreak in Georgia after murder of prominent trans woman

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The high-profile murder of trans media personality and model Kesaria Abramidze has led to an outpouring of grief and anger in Georgia, with many linking her murder to the ruling party’s transphobic rhetoric and legislation. Hours after the initial news broke on Wednesday evening, the Interior Ministry confirmed 37-year-old Abramidze was killed after receiving multiple knife wounds following an altercation in her home in Didi Dighomi.  They also confirmed that they had detained a primary susp

A Tbilisi Pride protest outside the parliament in July 2023, after homophobic groups destroyed the site of a planned Pride festival. Organisers lay items damaged at the site on the steps of Parliament. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media
Freedom of Assembly

Georgian parliament adopts homophobic laws

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Georgia’s parliament has adopted the ruling party’s homophobic legislative package in its third and final reading, banning ‘LGBT propaganda’, same-sex marriage, and gender affirming medical treatment.  At the plenary session held on Tuesday, 84 MPs from the parliamentary majority voted in favour of adopting the draft law in the third and final hearing, with none voting against it. They also voted on projects connected to the law, which similarly received the support of the majority. Around

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Official picture.
Georgia

Lavrov praises Georgian Government for resisting ‘Western LGBT agenda’

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has praised the Georgian Government for passing the foreign agent law, claiming that by doing so Georgia was resisting the West’s aims to maintain their global hegemony through the promotion of queer rights. ‘What the Georgian government is doing now is […] realising their national identity and understanding that the Georgian people have the same values of Orthodoxy, national culture, which will be eroded, erased, and subjugated by the “rules” that the

Giorgi Gakharia. Official photo.
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Gakharia’s For Georgia expresses support for ‘parts’ of Georgian queer propaganda law

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Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party has said it would have voted for ‘parts’ of Georgian Dream’s queer propaganda law if the legislative package had been split up instead of being voted for as a whole. On Wednesday, For Georgia issued the statement in response to claims by Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili that the party was opposed to the law. In his statement, Papuashvili praised Girchi — New Political Centre for taking part in the draft law’s second hearing, and claimed that For

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