TBILISI, Georgia — On Tuesday, Georgia’s ruling party put forward a bill that would limit the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
The Georgian Dream’s plans are like laws that have been passed in Russia. This comes after the government passed the “foreign influence” law, which some people said was copied from Moscow’s script. It led to weeks of large-scale protests and was seen by many as a threat to political rights and Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union.
If the bill is passed, it will stop same-sex couples from getting married, gender-affirming care, changing their gender marker on official papers, adopting children, promoting same-sex relationships in public places like schools and gatherings, and showing such relationships in the media.
Papuashvili, speaker of parliament and a member of Georgian Dream, announced the new plan the day after he put the “foreign influence” law into effect.
News organizations and private groups that get more than 20% of their funding from outside the country must register as “agents of foreign influence” under the “foreign influence” law. Last month, it led to large protests in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. People who are against it have called it “the Russian law” because it looks a lot like rules that the Russian government uses to silence criticism.
The bill was rejected by Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili, but it was overridden by the parliament, and on Monday, Papuashvili signed it into law.
Laws in Russia could also be compared to Georgian Dream’s plans to limit the rights of LGBTQ+ people. In official records from the past ten years, the Russian government has also made it illegal to support “non-traditional sexual relations,” care that affirms a person’s gender, and changing one’s gender.
As another blow to an already troubled community, Russia’s Supreme Court banned what the government called the LGBTQ+ “movement” in Russia as a radical group, making it illegal to promote LGBTQ+ rights.
