Queer Rights

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Bidzina Ivanishvili. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Georgian officials brace for further sanctions

by OC Media

•2 min read

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

by OC Media

•3 min read

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

Left photo: Mindia Gabadze/Publika; right photo via Tabula.

Crime

Georgian President attends funeral of murdered trans woman Kesaria Abramidze

by Shota Kincha

•1 min read

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has attended the funeral of Kesaria Abramidze, a trans media personality and model who was murdered last week. Abramidze was laid to rest at a ceremony in Tbilisi on Sunday. She was also commemorated in Antwerp, a Belgian city that is home to a number of queer refugees and asylum seekers from Georgia. The Georgian Orthodox Church refused to provide burial services for Abramidze due to her transgender identity. Abramidze’s former partner, 26-year-old

Kesaria Abramidze. Image: Erti ambavi merikostan/Facebook.

Crime

Heartbreak in Georgia after murder of prominent trans woman

by Shota Kincha

•3 min read

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

by OC Media

•2 min read

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

Chechnya

Chechen Deputy Minister of Information ‘kidnapped’ after intimate video shared online

by Luiza Mchedlishvili

•2 min read

Chechnya’s Deputy Minister for National Policy, External Relations, and Press and Information, Said-Magomed Bashirov, has reportedly disappeared following the distribution online of an intimate video. On 7 September, opposition blogger Khasan Khalitov published a recording of a WhatsApp video call in which Bashirov allegedly showed his genitals to another man. Khalitov wrote on Telegram that he received the recording from an anonymous source, via a Telegram feedback bot. ‘The most disg

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Official picture.

Georgia

Lavrov praises Georgian Government for resisting ‘Western LGBT agenda’

by Robin Fabbro

•2 min read

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