Georgia signs into law bill seen by EU as anti-LGBTQ

TBILISI

Georgia's president Salome Zurabishvili yesterday returned a bill on curbing LGBTQ+ rights to parliament, which it had approved last month.

The speaker of Georgia's parliament on Thursday signed into a law a bill similar to Russian legislation that curbs the rights of LGBTQ people, despite warnings from the EU.

The move came a day after Georgia's pro-Western president Salome Zurabishvili — at loggerheads with the ruling Georgian Dream party — refused to sign the bill.

The bill is similar to Moscow's "gay propaganda" law, which also bans gender re-assignment and nullifies same-sex marriages performed abroad or on Georgian territory.

"In conformity with the constitution, I signed today the law 'on family values and the protection of minors', which Salome Zurabishvili didn't sign," speaker Shalva Papuashvili said on Facebook.

The ruling Georgian Dream pushed the bill through parliament last month, a vote boycotted by the opposition and which has fuelled tensions ahead of crucial Oct. 26 parliamentary elections.

Papuashvili said the measure "is based on common sense, historical experience and centuries-old Christian, Georgian, and European values, rather than on changeable ideas and ideologies".

He claimed that the "law protects the rights of all citizens".

But rights group and western countries have said that it is discriminatory and creates a dangerous environment for LGBTQ people.

The bill also comes after Tbilisi's recent adoption of an anti-NGO "foreign influence law", which triggered weeks of mass anti-government protests and Western condemnation.

Critics accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of moving closer into the Kremlin's orbit and jeopardising Georgia's bid for EU membership.