Small groups neo-Nazis roamed central Tbilisi (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
Georgia’s State Security Service has warned a neo-Nazi group to abstain from using Nazi symbols in public. Small groups of neo-Nazis marched through Tbilisi several times last week, including on 17 May, International Day Against Homophobia, giving Nazi salutes and chanting ‘death to the enemy’. [Read more…]
Giorgi Kikonishvili is a blogger and member of the Equality Movement
On 17 May 2013, International Day Against Homophobia, a small group of around 50 queer rights activists were confronted in Tbilisi by thousands of counter-demonstrators led by Georgian Orthodox priests. Demonstrators carried posters with homophobic messages such as: ‘We don’t need Sodom and Gomorrah in Georgia’. The crowds, some carrying nettles to beat queer rights activists with, broke through police lines to attack the activists. Police were forced to evacuate the small number of activists from the city centre. Below is the story of Giorgi Kikonishvili, one of those present. [Read more…]
Queer rights groups in front of the 112 HQ (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
Queer rights activists held a number of small ‘guerrilla demonstrations’ in Tbilisi on Thursday to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia. Conservative and far-right groups held their own events, vowing to create a ‘Georgia without sodomy’, with the Church organising their own event for ‘family values’. [Read more…]
International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia marked on 17 May 2017 (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Queer rights group the Equality Movement has announced they will not mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia on 17 May, citing security concerns. The decision comes after far-right groups organised large homophobic rallies on 12–13 May and threatened violence against anyone coming out to support queer people. [Read more…]
Women brandishing nettles in a homophobic rally on 17 May 2013 (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Five years after a homophobic riot in Tbilisi, CRRC examines the levels of homophobia in Georgia. [Read more…]
A priest attending counter-rally on Sunday (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Georgia’s Orthodox Church distanced themselves from neo-Nazi groups, at a press conference at the Patriarchate on Monday, according to Netgazeti. Announcing their plans for 17 May — International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia — the Church urged any ‘aggressive’ groups to abstain from participating in events, and disavowed neo-Nazi group the Nationalist Socialist Movement — National Unity of Georgia. [Read more…]
Family purity day on 17 May 2017 (/OC Media)
The Georgian Orthodox Church is to host 400 marriages on 17 May, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). The Church declared 17 May the Family Purity Day in 2014, a year after a priest-led rally attacked a small group of queer rights activists who gathered to protest discrimination. [Read more…]
Sopo Kiladze (parliament.ge)
A group of 31 Georgian non-governmental organisations are demanding the resignation of Parliament’s Human Rights Committee chair, Sopo Kiladze. The groups include Transparency International Georgia, the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre (EMC), and Open Society Georgia Foundation.
Protest of the queer-rights group at Parliament building in Tbilisi (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Sopo Kiladze, head of the Georgian Parliament’s Human Rights Committee, is facing calls to resign after backtracking on a commitment to mark International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia on 17 May. Members of local queer rights group the Equality Movement and other activists gathered outside the Parliament building in Tbilisi on Tuesday morning. [Read more…]
17 May 2017, Tbilisi. (Luka Pertaia /OC Media)
Natia Gvianishvili is a lesbian feminist activist and researcher from Georgia representing the Women's Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG); she is one of the founders of the Independent Group of Feminists.
Queer rights activism has come a long way in Georgia, but faced with rising homophobia, cooperation within the movement is crucial now more than ever. [Read more…]
