Georgia’s first ever queer pride event is to take place in Tbilisi in June to demand ‘dignified and peaceful’ lives for queer people. Organisers said they would not hold a festive march because ‘Georgian queer people have little to celebrate’, while far-right groups vowed to thwart it. [Read more…]
International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on 17 May 2017 (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Queer people in Georgia are ‘completely defenceless’ against domestic violence, a recent study conducted by Georgian rights group the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre (EMC) has found. The study said this frequently results in victims being forced to leave their homes and impacts their education and careers, contributing to homelessness. [Read more…]
Guram Kashia against the backdrop of anti-queer protesters (Background photo: Giorgi Gogua /Liberali. Front photo: Reuters)
Dato Parulava is a staff writer at OC Media and Liberali.
In the face of abuse and threats over wearing a rainbow armband at a match, Georgia’s football captain, Guram Kashia, has received an unprecedented outpouring of support. Regardless of how much this support means for the queer community, we need to ask whether it is really for them, given that Kashia’s most prominent supporters have avoided mentioning queer people entirely. [Read more…]
Guram Kashia (lelo.ge)
The captain of Georgia’s National Football team, Guram Kashia, has met both backlash and support online and in the media after UEFA announced they were awarding him with their first #EqualGame award for his ‘courageous public stand for equality’. While some supported Kashia’s right to freedom of speech, or his support for queer rights, far-right groups vowed a rally outside Georgia’s match against Latvia in September. [Read more…]
(/UEFA)
UEFA has granted the captain of Georgia’s national football team, Guram Kashia, its inaugural #EqualGame award for his ‘courageous public stand for equality’. Last year, Kashia wore a rainbow armband during a game for Dutch team SBV Vitesse, and despite facing heavy backlash in Georgia, made further statements in support of equality.
Activists protest in front of General Prosecutor's Office in Yerevan to demand proper investigation of hate crime cases in Armenia, April 2018 (PINK Armenia)
On Friday evening, nine queer activists were attacked by ‘more than 30 people’ in the village of Shurnukh, in the southern Syunik region of Armenia. Two were hospitalised and six others with minor injuries were taken to the police station in Goris, the nearest town. [Read more…]
Queer rights groups in front of the 112 HQ (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
A poll by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) showed a small gain since 2015 in the public support for queer people in Georgia. Nevertheless, queer people remain one of the least supported groups, with only 23% of the Georgian population stating that the protection of their rights was important. [Read more…]
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…]
