Tbilisi, July 7, 2026
Photo: amnesty.org/
An EU official tried to get the Georgian Orthodox Church involved in promoting sinful lifestyles in the country, according to a Church spokesman.
Archpriest Andria Jagmaidze, head of the Public Relations Department of the Patriarchate of Georgia, said the request came from Hadja Lahbib, then Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs and now European Commissioner for Equality, during her visit to the Patriarchate in August 2023, reports 1tv.ge.
“We didn’t publicize it at the time because there was already polarization in society… Ms. Hadja Lahbib came to the Patriarchate and, among other issues, asked us something strange and unheard of. She said that the Patriarchate has quite significant influence in society, that Georgian society is very behind the trends of the 21st century, that same-sex marriages are unacceptable for society, and she asked us to help promote them,” Fr. Andria said.
He added:
I brought up a widely publicized case from that time from the LGBT agenda, and I told her that your LGBT agenda produced this case when a female athlete, a boxer, was beaten by a transgender person in the ring so badly that she was left disabled, and that athlete cried bitter tears because she had been preparing her whole life for this championship, and the man went into the ring and disfigured her, broke her jaw.
Lahbib had no response to this and noted that she hadn’t come for a discussion, Fr. Andria recalled.
“‘I’m not here for a discussion,’ she said and grabbed her papers and left. She had no answer to this. What answer could there have been?” Fr. Andria said.
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