Georgia LGBTQ event canceled after far-right mob storms park
July 9, 2023
The organizers behind Georgia's Pride Week were forced to cancel an event after thousands of far-right demonstrators and other opponents of LGBTQ rights stormed the venue on Saturday.
The open-air event at a park outside Tbilisi was called off after the demonstrators destroyed the stage, burned rainbow flags and looted the event's bar.
"The protesters managed to find... ways to enter the area of the event, but we were able to evacuate the Pride participants and organizers," Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Darakhvelidze told reporters.
"Nobody was harmed during the incident and police are now taking measures to stabilize the situation."
Attendees of the event were bussed away before the far-right demonstrators arrived.
"The venue has been evacuated and nobody was hurt," said Mariam Kvaratskhelia, one of the organizers.
Tbilisi Pride organizers criticize police response
Tbilisi Pride organizers said far-right groups had publicly incited violence against LGBTQ activists. They accused authorities of being complicit amid these threats.
They also claimed that police did not adequately block the access road to the festival site or use proportionate force against the far-right demonstrators.
"I definitely think this (disruption) was a pre-planned, coordinated action between the government and the radical groups... We think this operation was planned in order to sabotage the EU candidacy of Georgia," Kvaratskhelia said.
The protesters — numbering as many as 5,000, according to local media reports — waved Georgian flags and carried religious icons.
Homosexuality is highly stigmatized in Georgia and the powerful Orthodox Church has clashed with Western-leaning political parties on the issue.
Georgia's figurehead President Salome Zurabishvili said the government "must ensure that the Pride festival is held in safety." She is a frequent critic of Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the government.
"Freedom of speech and of assembly are fundamental rights and their violation is unacceptable," she added.
zc/wd (AFP, Reuters, AP)