Tbilisi, June 5, 2024
Photo: lovepmr.ru
The Georgian parliament will consider a package of bills that includes bans on same-sex marriages, gender reassignment surgeries, and LGBT propaganda. Earlier, a law on foreign agents was passed, as the Russian news website RBK reports, citing Georgia Online.
On June 4, a package of bills titled, “On the Protection of Family Values and Minors” will be introduced to the Georgian parliament, stated Shalva Papuashvili, the speaker of the legislative body. The package includes the main bill and 18 related amendments to existing Georgian laws, including those on labor and education, Papuashvili specified.
According to Georgia Online, this initiative also proposes:
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A ban on the registration of same-sex marriages;
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A ban on the adoption of children by individuals who have changed their gender or have a non-traditional orientation;
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A ban on indicating a gender different from the biological one in documents;
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A ban on gender reassignment surgeries and other related medical procedures;
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A ban on “LGBT propaganda” in educational institutions, advertising, and media;
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A ban on “public gatherings and demonstrations aimed at promoting identification with a different gender, same-sex relationships, or incest”;
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The invalidation of rules in all state or private institutions that “aim to negate the biological gender of a person.” For example, prohibitions on the use of the terms, “father” and “mother.”
The package of bills will be considered in the first reading during the spring session of parliament and will be finally adopted in the fall, Papuashvili noted. He also invited everyone interested to participate in the discussion of this initiative.
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On May 28, the Georgian parliament passed the law on foreign agents. The authors of the initiative noted that it targets “organizations operating in the interests of a foreign state.” This includes non-profit organizations and media outlets if more than 20 percent of their funding comes from abroad. As author Helen Andrews wrote in the American Conservative, “According to Almut Rochowanski and Sopiko Japaridze, there are 25,000 registered NGOs in Georgia today and ‘the vast majority of Georgian NGOs have no local funding at all.’ Instead, their funds come from the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, or George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.
“These NGOs do not confine themselves to humanitarian work. Many of them freely engage in partisan activity and vocally oppose the ruling party.
“The bill would not prevent foreign-funded NGOs from treating sick children or operating battered women’s shelters. It would simply require groups to disclose foreign funding so that their ventures into domestic politics can be seen in the proper light.”
Although Western opponents of the bill have called Georgia’s foreign agents law a “Russian Law”, the Georgian political party Georgian Dream has firmly stated that the legislation was based on the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), passed in 1938 in the United States. The most significant difference between the Georgian foreign agents law and the FARA is the penalties. In Georgia, Failure to register in the appropriate registry will result in fines ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 lari ($3,700 to $9,400). In the U.S., non-compliance with FARA can result in fines of up to $10,000 for each violation. Willful failure to comply with FARA can lead to criminal charges, which are considered felonies. Besides being fined, violators can also face prison sentences of up to five years.
OrthoChristian earlier reported that the Georgian Dream party has asked the U.S. to stop using NGOs to attack the Orthodox Church and foment revolution.
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