Transgender woman stabbed to death in Georgia amid LGBTQ bill controversy

Kesaria Abramidze, a transgender model, is killed in Georgia, raising concerns over LGBTQ rights and safety.

A Georgian transgender model and prominent public figure has been stabbed to death in her apartment in a “premeditated” attack, authorities say, amid criticism of a government crackdown on LGBTQ rights.

The actress and influencer Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was killed in a knife attack on Wednesday, a day after a bill supporting “family values” passed its final reading. The law has been compared to Russia’s “gay propaganda” law and criticised by the European Union and rights groups as stigmatising LGBTQ people.

Abramidze was the first person in Georgia to publicly come out as transgender. She represented the country at the Miss Trans Star International contest in 2018 and had more than 500,000 followers on Instagram.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Thursday that she suffered “multiple stab wounds” and it was investigating a “premeditated murder committed with particular cruelty and aggravating circumstances on gender grounds”.

Georgian media reported that the police have arrested a male suspect.

Critics have long accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of stoking homophobia and transphobia and of pushing an anti-Western, anti-liberal agenda before elections next month.

Pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili – at loggerheads with the government – condemned the “horrific murder” in a Facebook post, saying “the tragedy must awaken Georgian society”.

Abramidze herself had previously criticised the government’s approach to domestic violence and women’s rights. In April, she said she was forced to temporarily flee abroad, fearing for her life after attacks from a former partner.

“No to the femicide that has become so frequent in our country!” she posted.

Georgia’s own rights ombudsman said in 2022 that “LGBT+ people face persistent discrimination and violence in all spheres of life”.

The latest measures, which need to be signed into law by Zurabishvili or the parliament’s speaker, “concern restricting, in educational institutions and TV broadcasts, the propaganda of same-sex relationships and incest”.

It also bans gender transition, adoption by same-sex couples and transgender people, and nullifies same-sex marriages performed abroad.

Rights groups have criticised the wording for putting LGBTQ relations on par with incest. Amnesty International called the measures “homophobic and transphobic”. And Brussels has said the bill “undermines fundamental rights of Georgians and risks further stigmatisation and discrimination of part of the population”.

This move comes less than a year after the government passed another controversial bill on “foreign agents”, triggering protests and political tensions for months.

That bill requires media and NGOs to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad. It is seen by many as influenced by similar legislation in Russia, which has been used to clamp down on the Kremlin’s political opponents and dissent.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies