The speaker of Georgia’s parliament on Thursday signed into law a bill that curbs the rights of LGBTQ people, despite warnings from the EU.
The move occurred a day after Georgia’s pro-Western president, Salome Zurabishvili, declined to sign the bill, citing disagreements with the ruling Georgian Dream party.
The bill is comparable to Moscow’s “gay propaganda” law, which prohibits gender transformation and invalidates same-sex marriages performed abroad or in the country’s 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 party pushed the bill through parliament last month in a vote boycotted by the opposition, which has stoked tensions ahead of the critical October 26 legislative 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 mentioned that the “law protects the rights of all citizens.”
However, rights organisations and Western countries have argued that it is discriminatory and creates an unsafe atmosphere for LGBTQ persons.
Last month, a well-known transgender lady was stabbed to death during the campaign for the bill in the country.
The bill also follows Tbilisi’s recent passage of an anti-NGO “foreign influence law,” which sparked weeks of widespread anti-government protests and Western censure.
Critics accuse the ruling Dream party of getting closer to the Kremlin, jeopardising Georgia’s EU membership aspirations.
