Georgia
Georgia, a small South Caucasus country, declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
In the early 1990s, Georgia was hit by three near-simultaneous wars: a civil war and the first conflicts in Samachablo and Abkhazia.
Hostilities resumed in Abkhazia in 1998. In 2008, the war centered on Samachablo, widely known as the Russo-Georgian War.
Backed directly or indirectly by Russia, these conflicts displaced hundreds of thousands and remain frozen to this day.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia was hit by hyperinflation and mass unemployment, with the share of industry in GDP declining from about 27 percent in 1991 to about 17 percent in 1995. Cities went dark amid energy shortages, factories closed, and many survived on subsistence farming or remittances. Poverty, crime, and corruption deepened, defining the country’s political landscape throughout the decade.
During this period, as Georgia continued to shape its national identity, the Orthodox Church gained growing influence, promoting conservative views, particularly on gender roles and LGBT issues.
The 2003 Rose Revolution and regime changemarked a transition from post-Soviet economic decline to a neoliberal capitalist system. Although the government embarked on rapid reforms, including the ones aimed at EU membership, the same administration ultimately became associated with human-rights violations, media oppression, elite corruption and political control over the judiciary.
In 2012, it was replaced by a new ruling power under which the human rights situation improved at first but in recent couple of years it has been rapidly consolidating into an increasingly authoritarian regime.
In December 2023, Georgia was granted EU candidate status despite missing many benchmarks. Georgian Dream, the ruling party in power for 13 years, initially pursued democratic and human rights reforms, seeking (or at least appearing to seek) alignment with EU values.
However, its course shifted sharply after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Fraud and election irregularities orchestrated by Georgian Dream in the 26 October 2024 parliamentary elections triggered a political crisis and sparked protests that continue to this day.
Later that year Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that accession talks won’t begin until 2028, and in July 2025 EU officials declared the process on hold for now.
Legal and Political Context
After independence in the early 1990s, Georgia moved to decriminalize same-sex activity in the early 2000s by overhauling its criminal code to meet European human-rights standards.
However, the human rights of LGBT+ people remained largely unaddressed, as gender and sexuality continued to serve as grounds for blackmail, violence, social exclusion, and discrimination.
It was only in the mid-2010s, that Parliament passed a broad anti-discrimination law banning all forms of discrimination.
Transgender rights also saw step-by-step advances: since the late 2000s, individuals who have undergone sex-reassignment surgery have been able to amend their legal name and gender on official documents, and discrimination on the basis of gender identity has been prohibited.
Despite some legislative progress, the rights to freedom of assembly and expression have never been fully upheld for LGBT groups in Georgia.
In the fall of 2024, the so-called “propaganda law,” or Anti-LGBT law, introduced new restrictive measures across multiple areas related to gender and sexuality. In practice, nearly any non-homophobic representation of SOGIE is classified as “LGBT popularization” and thus banned.
The legislation is particularly harsh toward transgender individuals, as it effectively abolishes any possibility of changing gender markers in official documents, even in cases of gender-affirming surgery, and criminalizes any medical procedures aimed at gender reassignment.
In parallel with the adoption of the law on “family values and protection of minors”, the concept of gender was removed from all legislation. Prior to that the Parliament adopted the “foreign agents” law, requiring organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from foreign sources to register as “agents of foreign influence”. The combination of these three measures would render the functioning of LGBT+ civil society organisations and activists in Georgia almost entirely impossible.
Civil Society and Activism
Throughout these years, only a few organizations have worked in this field, among them WISG, Identoba, Peripheria, Equality Movement, Temida, and Tbilisi Pride.
Together, these organizations have built the foundation of Georgia’s LGBT+ movement, advancing legal protections, documenting abuses, and providing essential support services.
Through advocacy, community building, and public action, they have kept LGBT+ rights visible within the country’s wider fight for equality and human rights.
Since the early 2010s, activists have braved violent pushback. In spring 2012, Georgia’s first public IDAHO march was halted by radical clergy and counter-demonstrators, with police arriving too late. A similar assault in spring 2013 forced the cancellation of another planned IDAHO rally amid thousands of anti-GBT protesters led by Orthodox priests.
In 2019, planned Pride Week faced ultra-right threats and was forced indoors. Violence escalated in 2021, when offices and journalists were attacked, and cameraman Lekso Lashkarava died from his injuries days later. As a result, organizers moved events to private venues through 2022.
In 2023, an attempt to hold Pride outdoors was again overrun and canceled.
Despite the lack of public festivals, underground parties, queer-friendly venues, and online networks sustain Georgia’s LGBT+ community.
Public Attitudes and Discrimination
Attitudes are mixed and politicized. In 2021, 54% rejected the idea that the EU threatens traditions, though 35% still agreed, views shaped in part by Russian disinformation.
In line with this split, supporters of closer ties with the EU/US tend to be more accepting of gay people, while those favoring more distance from Russia are more tolerant than status-quo or pro-Russia groups.
At the same time, homophobia persists, yet 2016-2021 data show declines in homo/bi/transphobia, with transphobia dropping the most, and the rigid sex-gender binary is gradually losing ground.
However, most of the progress resulted from shifts in women’s attitudes, with men’s opinions remaining largely unchanged.
Nevertheless, many still frame LGBT+ advocacy as “imposing a lifestyle”: 55.9% agree that LGBT+ people should be protected but “not impose,” 19.7% disagree, and 14.7% are neutral.
Meanwhile, gender norms remain traditional: 83% say paid work is key to women’s independence, yet 71% think women should work less to focus on family.