LGBT rights in Georgia (country)

LGBT rights in Georgia
Georgia
Same-sex sexual activity legal?	Legal
Gender identity/expression	Change of legal gender allowed, following sex reassignment surgery
Military service	No known policy
Discrimination protections	Yes
Family rights
Recognition of relationships	No
Adoption	No

Georgia is one of only few countries in the former Soviet space (others being EU-member Baltic states) that directly prohibits discrimination against LGBT people in legislation, labor-related or otherwise, and considers crimes committed on the grounds of one's sexual orientation an aggravating factor in prosecution.^[1] Despite this, homosexuality is considered a major deviation from highly traditional Orthodox Christian values prevalent in the country, where public discussions of sexuality in general tend to be shunned. Consequently, homosexuals are often targets of abuse and physical violence.^[2][3]

The government tries to bring the country's human rights record in line with the demands of Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has stated that "sexual minorities are the same citizens as we are... [and that] the society will gradually get used to it."^[4] Moreover, recent street tensions in the country over LGBT rights have generated unprecedented media coverage and public discussion of this previously neglected topic.

Legality of same-sex sexual activity

In 1933, Article 121 was added to the Criminal Code, for the entire Soviet Union, that expressly prohibited male homosexuality, with up to five years of hard labor in prison. The precise reason for the new law is still in some dispute. Some historians have suggested that Joseph Stalin's enactment of the anti-gay law was, like his prohibition on abortion, an attempt to increase the Soviet birthrate. The article was also used by Soviet authorities against dissident movements, with many activists being arrested on trumped-up sodomy charges.

After Georgia obtained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the aforesaid practice fell out of use and there are no recorded cases of sodomy article being openly used against political opponents ever since. Despite this, the freedom of same-sex sexual activity was not officially enshrined in the law until 2000, when the Georgian Government put in place an amended criminal code to meet the standards set forth by the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights.^[5]

The age of consent for both heterosexual and homosexual sex stands at 16 years of age as set by the Georgian Penal Code Articles 140 and 141.^[6]

After a month of public consultation, 2016 proposals will be considered in Parliament. Public meetings on the ban are scheduled from mid-March until April 15 in various cities throughout the country.^[7]

The proposal would then require three hearings on two different sessions with at least a three-month interval in between them. For the ban to be successful, a minimum of three-fourths of Parliament, or 113 of the 150 MPs, must vote in favor.^[8]

Discrimination protections

Since 2006, Article 2(3) of the Labor Code prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment relations.^[9]

According to the amended Georgian Criminal Code (since 2012), committing crimes against individuals based on sexual orientation, among other things, is an aggravating factor that should result in tougher sentences during prosecution.^[1]

On 2 May 2014, the Parliament approved an anti-discrimination law, banning all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It took effect upon publication, on 7 May 2014.^[10][11][12]

Hate Crime

In spite of the legislative amendment to article 53 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which ensures that bias motivated by the sexual orientation or gender identity of a victim may be taken into account as an aggravating circumstance when determining sanctions, there are still no official statistics about crimes conducted on SOGI grounds in the country. According to the registered cases and conducted studies, it becomes clear that the law prohibiting hate crime is not efficient. ^[13]

According to the study 'From Prejudice To Equality: study of societal attitudes, knowledge and information regarding the LGBT community and their rights ^[14]: in 2012, the Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG) conducted a study on discrimination among LGBT people in Georgia, which revealed the following: 32% of surveyed respondents had at least once experienced physical violence and 89.93% had experienced psychological violence. On average, among the 134 respondents, who had experienced psychological violence, 73.13% had become victims three or more times, 13.43% had experienced it twice, whereas 13.43% - once. All six respondents from the 16-18 age group had admitted that at school they had often become victims of bullying.^[15] Among 48 respondents, who had been victims of physical violence, 73% had never reported to police. Among the reasons for not reporting to police the following was mentioned: Ineffectiveness of police – 21.62%; Fear of homophobic treatment – 29.73%; Failure by the police to treat the matter in a serious manner – 21.62%. Among those who had reported to police, 46.15% were dissatisfied with this decision, as they experienced a homophobic reaction from the police, 30% admit that the police acted in a friendly manner, while 23.08% state that they were treated neutrally.

Gender identity/expression

Since 2008, transgender persons in Georgia can change documents and personal names only after having undergone sex reassignment surgery.^[16]

Discrimination on the basis of gender identity is outlawed.^[10]

LGBT freedom of expression

An event in 2006 that supposed to promote the tolerance and cultural dialogue was canceled after the rumours spread that it was supposedly a gay parade. The head of Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilya stated that the any kind of rally which features LGBT people are "offensive".^[17]

On 17 May 2012, Georgian LGBT organisation Identoba organized a peaceful march in observance of International Day against Homophobia. This was the first public march in support of LGBT equality in Georgia. The march was discontinued soon after it started, however, because the marchers were assaulted by religious counter-demonstrators, including representatives of the Georgian Orthodox Church and radical Christian groups.^[18] Police intervened to protect the march participants only after the fighting had already broken out and arrested some of the victims instead of the perpetrators.^[19]

Amnesty International criticized the Georgian government for failing to effectively protect the march.^[20] On 14 January 2013, LGBT organization Identoba and the participants of the march filed an application against Georgia with the European Court of Human Rights. The application claims that Georgia failed to effectively protect the participants of LGBT march and did not investigate or adequately punish the perpetrators.^[21]

The 2013 observance of International Day against Homophobia was also met with aggression. LGBT activists scheduled a rally to mark the occasion; however, it never took place. Thousands of anti-LGBT protestors, led by Georgian Orthodox priests, held a counter-demonstration. Protestors carried images of Jesus and signs reading "Stop promoting homosexual propaganda in Georgia" and "We don't need Sodom and Gomorrah." Some women waved symbolic bundles of nettle to "beat the gay people", including one woman who labeled the rally a "gay parade" held by "sick people ... against our traditions and ... morals" and proclaiming her readiness to fight. Despite a heavy police presence, the protestors stormed the barricades protecting the pro-LGBT rally. At least 28 people were slightly injured, with many trapped in buses and nearby shops and homes that were attacked by the protestors. According to a video from the scene, the police saved one young man from an apparent lynching by several dozen people. According to the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, however, the state "failed to ensure conduct of the scheduled event ... and thus [the] rights of rally participants to assembly and manifestation were grossly violated." Observers indicated that the police allowed Orthodox clergymen and other demonstrators to enter the barricaded area and were, in private communications, cynical and humiliating to the rally participants. Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, along with other leading officials, condemned the violence. He said, "The right to gather peacefully and to freely express one's opinion is fundamental to our democracy. Every Georgian citizen benefits fully and equally from this right. Acts of violence, discrimination and restriction of the rights of others will not be tolerated, and any perpetrators of such acts will be dealt with according to the law."^{[22][23][24][25][26][27]}

Social attitudes

According to social attitude questionnaires, homosexuals remained one of the most disliked groups in society – with most respondents preferring an alcoholic rather than homosexual colleague at work.^[28] According to the same questionnaires, an estimated 91.5 percent of Georgians think that homosexuality is "completely unacceptable".^[29]

In October 2007 one of the contestants on the reality TV show Bar-4 outed himself on public television. After reportedly receiving a call from the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church Ilia II of Georgia, the Georgian president allegedly pressured the producers of the show into evicting the gay participant from the TV program.^[30]

Quantitative research performed in a recent large scale study dated June 2016 ^[31] identified that negative attitudes towards LGBTI group remain dominant in Georgia. Respondents expressed more negative attitudes towards bisexual and gender non-conforming men than bisexual and gender non-conforming women. Attitudes towards lesbians and gay persons are equally negative. The study showed that adverse attitudes towards lesbian and gay people have various predictors. Biphobic attitudes in Georgian society are stronger than homophobic sentiment. The higher level of biphobia is determined by bisexuality being perceived as a “fluid, unstable orientation”. In terms of transphobia, sex constitutes a significant predictor: men are more inclined to express negative attitudes towards transgender and gender non-conforming persons than women. Negative attitudes towards select groups vary by village/town/capital, gender, age, level of contact/acquaintance with the LGBTI community, and level of knowledge about homosexuality. Homo/bi/transphobic attitudes are largely determined by respondents’ perceptions of traditional gender roles, and the level of right-wing authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism (the degree of influence evidently varies among individual groups). Respondents ranking high on the right-wing authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism scales far more frequently exhibit negative attitudes towards LGBTI community members. The more rigid the respondents’ understanding of traditional gender roles, the higher they rank on the homophobia, biphobia and transphobia scales.

Gender identity/expression

Summary table

Same-sex sexual activity legal	(Since 2000)
Equal age of consent	(Since 2000)
Anti-discrimination laws in employment	(Since 2006)
Anti-discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services	(Since 2014)
Anti-discrimination laws in all other areas (incl. indirect discrimination, hate speech)	(Since 2014)
Discrimination based on gender identity banned	(Since 2014)
Hate crime laws include sexual orientation	(Since 2012)
Same-sex marriages	(Constitutional ban proposed)
Recognition of same-sex couples
Step-child adoption by same-sex couples
Joint adoption by same-sex couples
Gays and lesbians allowed to serve openly in the military
Right to change legal gender	(Since 2008)
Access to IVF for lesbians
Commercial surrogacy for gay male couples
MSM allowed to donate blood	(Since 2014)

See also

• LGBT history in Georgia
• LGBT rights in Europe
• 2013 Tbilisi anti-homophobia rally protests

References