Anti-LGBTQ+ law passed in Georgia after president refuses to sign
A law restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people has been signed into law – despite the objections of the country’s president.
President Salome Zourabichvili refused to sign into law the bill which bans same-sex marriages, adoptions by same-sex couples, recognition of changing genders, and positive depictions of LGBTQ+ relations.
However Shalva Papuashvili, the speaker of the Georgian parliament ignored the president’s veto, and signed the bill into law on Thursday.
Writing on social media he said that the legislation was based on “common sense, historical experience and centuries-old Christian, Georgian and European values.”
The law was introduced by the governing Georgian Dream party.
Ana Tavadze of Tbilisi Pride said that by signing the law the party had taken homophobia to “a new level, and that is political and institutional homophobia,”
Homosexuality has been legal in Georgia since 2000 but LGBTQ+ people still suffer persecution and dissemination.
One day after the bill was passed in parliament, Kesaria Abramidze, a well known transgender actor and model, was found stabbed to death in her apartment.