MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Georgia arrested several gay rights activists ahead of a planned demonstration outside a meeting of the US-based World Congress of Families, highlighting tension in Georgian society between liberal and conservative factions.
The activists accused the World Congress of Families, which campaigns against gay rights and heavily promotes conservative Christian values, of being deliberately provocative by choosing May 15 – 18 as the date for its annual meeting.
Importantly May 17 is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. In Georgia, it is also the anniversary of violent attacks on a pro-gay rights march in Tbilisi in 2013. Around two dozen activists were wounded in the clashes, one of the worst attacks in the former Soviet Union on gay rights activists.
Outside the World Congress of Families meeting activists placed a rainbow-coloured stool, or taburetka.
“The taburetka became a symbol of oppression and daily violence,” Mariam Kvaratskhelia, representative of the LGBT Georgia lobby group, was quoted in DFW as saying.
“LGBT people exist in Georgia and they’re experiencing daily oppression. We’re calling the Georgian Orthodox Church to stop generating hate towards LGBT persons within society.”
In the 2013 attack on gay-rights campaigners, a heavily-bearded Orthodox priest was photographed wielding a stool and using it as a weapon against the activists.
It was an image that has come to represent reactionary forces associated with the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Georgian society is generally regarded as being conservative, an issue that is likely to play a role in October’s parliamentary election. Politicians have already been looking to win support from the large groups which support the Georgian Orthodox Church. This group is generally considered to be anti-gay rights.
Opinion polls have shown that the election is going to be close.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)
