Tuesday, September 17, 2024 brought the latest legal changes across Europe that will severely curtail LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms amid trends of homophobia and transphobia. The populist Georgian Dream – Georgian parliament, dominated by the Democratic Party of Georgia (later Georgian Dream), first came to power in 2012 with a focus on change. They have campaigned for exclusion from relations with Russia since the 2008 war and have taken issue with the successionist movement in several regions of the country. They were elected following criticism of the practices of the previous government, which they considered authoritarian, demanding justice and fairness from the government, and maintaining a pro-EU image while distrusting Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgia’s path to European integration spanned more than 20 years. Included in the European Neighborhood Policy Program in 2006, the company has steadily attempted to further align itself with EU values and membership requirements. It has been estimated that 82% of Georgians approve of the government’s goal of joining the EU in 2023. In the process, the European Commission recommended granting candidate status to Georgia as long as it addresses a number of priorities to bring it more in line with EU standards and values. Along with a commitment to improving the integrity of the judicial system, ensuring independent and effective accountability and functioning of state institutions, and a process of ‘decommissioning’, Georgia’s goal was to better enforce anti-discrimination laws and improve protections. Rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
Recent legal developments in Georgia contradict these policy goals. At a time when 80% of the country wants to join the EU, it is a strange move by a government that has been in power for over a decade, and brazenly threatens the country’s prospects of membership as it faces elections in a month’s time.
But this is not the first time Georgia’s dream party has upset the EU. In April 2024, they introduced a law requiring non-governmental organizations and media outlets that receive more than 20% of their annual income from abroad to register with the Georgian Ministry of Justice as organizations “serving” the interests of foreign powers. Many critics likened it to a similar law passed in Russia in 2022 that would allow Putin to remain increasingly silent. Georgian Dream argued that there was a need to stop the promotion of LGBTQ+ propaganda.
Perhaps Georgian Dream’s recent targeting of the LGBTQ+ community has to do with concerns about losing the election in October. Ilga-Europe, the European branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Gender Association, an international civil society organization that promotes the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, noted a sharp increase in violence against LGBTQ+ people and their supporters in Georgia. The latest data from the International Social Research Program survey shows that 84% of Georgians believe same-sex sexual relations between two adults are always wrong, compared to an international average of 37%.
Ethnic communities are often used as scapegoats by politicians to divert attention from other issues or gain support from voters before elections. I don’t think this will be any different in Georgia. Already in 2021, Georgian authorities have not acted to properly protect the Tbilisi Pride Parade, with many gays and lesbians gathering in the city, and extreme right-wing protesters have torn down the pride and attacked activists and journalists, forcing the cancellation of the event. I did it. Strong anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric from the government and the powerful Georgian Orthodox Church has served to create an atmosphere of homophobia in Georgia. In July 2023, the church’s governing body even called for a law to discuss “regulating queer propaganda.”
The Georgia Dream Party’s latest bill would ban Pride Marches, censor media that depicts same-sex couples and ban public recognition of LGBTQ+ relationships and people, deny gender-affirming treatment to trans people and ignore same-sex marriage and adoption . The party appears to be trying to leverage anti-LGBTQ+ feelings for its political goals. The law itself runs counter to broader EU policies and regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual or gender identity in member states. Georgia is acting in direct contradiction to its conditions for future membership and the EU must respond strongly. The EU paused Georgia’s accession process in July following the passage of a “foreign agents” law in July. But this doesn’t seem to have stopped the Georgian Dream Party from further upsetting the block.
If the EU truly wants to practice what it preaches, it must reject illegal, anti-democratic laws that go against basic European values and take further action. It must go beyond token speeches of condemnation and introduce sanctions. The EU could make Georgia’s example of the latest gay move to prove that its promises to promote LGBTQ+ rights are facing populists.
“Europeanization” has long been a popular word in academic studies of the European Union. This refers to the process by which the EU’s values, policies, norms and practices influence and shape the same values, policies, norms and practices of other member states and countries in the bloc, as well as external externalities. However, the process doesn’t seem to be as clear as initially expected. Europe But Georgia is not the first country in the EU’s zone of influence and is not lacking in LGBTQ+ rights. Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party have implemented various legal changes to curtail and undermine the rights of Hungary’s LGBTQ+ community, while a third of Poland declared itself an “LGBT-free zone” just four years ago.
Europe has seemed to falter in its attempts to promote “European” values of pro-LGBTQ+ in several countries. EU member states are challenging European values with legal changes, their societies have seen increased levels of intolerance towards the LGBTQ+ community, and the EU itself appears unable to properly deal with the problem.
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