Georgia’s president refuses to sign anti-LGBTQ bill

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze accuses Salome Zourabichvili of choosing ‘pseudo-liberal propaganda’ instead of ‘family values’.

Georgia’s president has earned scorn from the country’s prime minister after refusing to sign a controversial “anti-LGBTQ bill” into law.

President Salome Zourabichvili refused on Wednesday to sign off on the legislation, approved by parliament last month, which would ban gender transition, adoption by gay and transgender people, and nullify same-sex marriages performed abroad.

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

“President Zourabichvili refused to sign the bill and returned to parliament without vetoing it,” presidency spokeswoman Marika Bochoidze told the AFP news agency.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze reacted angrily, accusing the liberal head of state of failing families and minors, according to Georgian media.

“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, once again shows what political choice this person made and what forces [she] is governed by,” he said.

Despite Zourabichvili’s opposition, the bill is set to take effect, with the parliament speaker able to sign off on it instead of the president within five days.

Protesters rally in Tbilisi in support of those who were injured during the July 5 protests, when a pride march was disrupted by violent groups before it could begin [File: Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters]

Critics warn that the bill mirrors legislation used in Russia to curb LGBTQ rights. It “concerns restricting, in educational institutions and TV broadcasts, the propaganda of same-sex relationships and incest”.

Rights groups have also slammed its use of language that puts gay relations on a par with incest.

Amnesty International has called the measures “homophobic and transphobic”. The European Union has said the bill “undermines fundamental rights of Georgians and risks further stigmatisation and discrimination of part of the population”.

Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, a member of Georgia Dream, said the measures are aimed at “strengthening mechanisms for the protection of minors and family values that are based on the union of a woman and a man”.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies