Georgia's president refuses to sign anti-LGBTQ law | LGBTQ News

Prime Minister Iraqi Kobakhidze accuses Salome Zurabishvili of choosing “pseudo-liberal propaganda” instead of “family values.”

Georgia's president has earned the ridicule of the country's prime minister after refusing to enact a controversial “anti-LGBTQ law.”

President Salome Zourabichvili refused on Wednesday to sign the law passed by parliament last month that would ban gender reassignment surgery, gay and transgender adoptions and annul same-sex marriages performed abroad.

The move against the so-called family values ​​law, pushed through by the ruling Georgian Dream party, comes about three weeks before crucial parliamentary elections on October 26.

“President Zurabishvili refused to sign the bill and returned to parliament without a veto,” presidential spokeswoman Marika Bochoidze told AFP.

Prime Minister Iraqi Kobachidze reacted angrily and accused the liberal head of state of abandoning families and minors, Georgian media reported.

“The fact that Salome Zourabichvili did not stand on the side of protecting traditional and family values, not on the side of protecting the interests of minors, but on the side of pseudo-liberal propaganda, shows once again what political decision this person made and .” what powers [she] is regulated by,” he said.

Despite Zurabishvili's opposition, the bill is due to come into force, with the speaker of parliament able to sign it within five days in place of the president.

Critics warn that the bill mirrors legislation used in Russia to restrict LGBTQ rights. It “is about restricting the propaganda of same-sex relationships and incest in educational institutions and television shows.”

Human rights groups have also criticized language that equates homosexual relationships with incest.

Amnesty International described the measures as “homophobic and transphobic”. The European Union said the bill “undermines the fundamental rights of Georgians and risks further stigmatization and discrimination against a part of the population.”

Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, a Georgia Dream member, said the measures aim to “strengthen mechanisms for the protection of minors and family values ​​based on the union of women and men.”