On June 28, “Pride Week” began in Tbilisi with various public “LGBT” events. On July 2, several thousand people came out for an anti-LGBT rally. The protests were supported by the Georgian Orthodox Church.
On July 5, an LGBT “Pride Parade” was supposed to take place in Tbilisi, but it was disrupted by opponents of Pride. After that a spontaneous rally began in front of the Parliament of Georgia, attended by several thousand people, and the office of the organizer of the Pride Week Tbilisi Pride was attacked, the “Pride” flags near the office and the European Union flags near the Parliament where the Orthodox cross was placed were torn down. Unfortunately, the rally did not go without serious incidents. More than fifty journalists were beaten by protesters.
On July 6, LGBT representatives held a retaliatory rally in front of the parliament called “For Freedom,” with a small group of conservative-minded Georgian citizens nearby. They tried to break through the police cordon and pelted participants of the pro-LGBT rally with stones.
“Unfortunately, what we had warned about has now happened–it was not possible to stop the incidents and the escalation. The responsibility for this lies as much with the perpetrators of violence as with those whom we warned, but they did not discontinue their activities. We all have constitutional rights, but along with them should come the responsibility to exercise our rights with respect for others”, said chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze in an interview with the Imedi TV channel.
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