One year ago, anti-LGBTQ+ protesters violently disrupted a Pride festival in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, and forced its cancellation. The attack was not unprecedented: assaults on LGBTQ+ events in the country are a regular occurrence.
Georgia’s LGBTQ+ people are also often used as scapegoats by political parties to distract the population from problems such as widespread poverty and inequality. So, with parliamentary elections coming up in October, Tbilisi Pride decided it would not hold any public events in 2024. In a post on Facebook, the organisers cited concerns about safety and hostile pre-election rhetoric.
