On Tuesday, Georgia voted through a new law that gives authorities the right to ban Pride events and censor films and books with the aim of “protecting traditional family values and minors”. The law also makes same-sex marriage and gender reassignment surgery illegal.
Yesterday, one of the country’s most famous trans people, the model Kesaria Abramidze, was murdered. According to local authorities, she was allegedly stabbed to death in her apartment in a suburb of the capital, Tbilisi. A man has been arrested in connection with the murder. According to Georgian media, he is her boyfriend.
The motive is still unknown, but Georgian civil society quickly condemned the attack as part of the state-run campaign against LGBTQ people in the country. Kesaria Abramidze was the first to come out publicly as transgender in the country and was a representative in an international transgender beauty pageant in 2018.
“There is a direct correlation between hateful rhetoric in politics and hate crimes,” writes the Tbilisi-based group Social Justice Center, which works for human rights, in a Facebook post about the murder.
Violence against LGBTQ people is increasing in Georgia
In recent years, the Georgian Dream party has led the country at the same time as violence against LGBTQ people has increased significantly. Critics believe that the new law is reminiscent of Russian laws that limit the rights of LGBTQ people.
Last year, a Pride festival in Tbilisi was stormed by hundreds of anti-LGBTQ protesters. This year, tens of thousands marched in the nation’s capital for “traditional family values.” The ruling party attended the event together with the Orthodox Church.
“It’s been almost a year since the Georgian Dream regime has aggressively used homo, bi and transphobic language and cultivated it with all the mass propaganda that entails,” writes the Social Justice Centre.
Criticism from the president and the EU
The law is expected to make it more difficult for Georgia to enter the EU. Among other things, it has attracted criticism from Michael Roth, Social Democrat representative in the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, who wrote on X:
“Those who sow hatred reap violence. Kesaria Abramidze was murdered just a day after the Georgian parliament voted through the anti-LGBTQ law”
Georgia’s ceremonial president, Salome Zourabichvil, is expected to veto the law before it takes effect. However, the Georgian Dream party and its allies have enough mandates to override the president’s veto.
Zourabichivil has said that the murder will be an “awakening” for society.
“A horrible murder! The death of this beautiful young woman… should not be in vain,” she wrote on Facebook.