The Parliament of Georgia passed a set of laws that place restrictions targeted at minority sexual orientations and gender identities on Tuesday, infringing upon the international human, civil, and political rights of the LGBTQ+ community.

The legislation, labelled “laws on family values and protection of minors” is broad and includes restrictions relating to “marriage, adoption, foster care, medical procedures that alter a person’s biological sex, the designation of gender in official documents, education…public demonstrations and labour relations” according to local media. The UN Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights states that these laws will “impose discriminatory restrictions on education, public discussion and gatherings related to sexual orientation and gender identity”.

In particular, Reuters reports that the legislation would allow the government to ban public gatherings and media that the government views as “LGBTQ+ propaganda” and ban the public display of symbols associated with the LGBTQ+ community such as the rainbow flag. Open Caucasus states that the legislation prohibits public discussion that “aims to popularize” any identity that is not straight and cisgender, effectively banning the public or educational discussion of all minority gender and sexual identities.

The legislation also bans anyone who is not cisgender and straight from adopting children, bans gender-affirming surgery, forces employers to refer to employees by their biological sex and makes doctors who do gender-affirming surgery subject to a fine and the loss of their medical license. The legislation also prohibits same-sex marriage, although there are already several laws that make this illegal, including the constitution.

In practice, this wide-sweeping legislation will infringe on several rights included in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), including the rights to free expression, a free press and freedom of assembly. The ICCPR has been in effect in Georgia since 1994.

Dream Georgia, the ruling party that passed the legislation, claims that the restrictions are necessary to protect the children of Georgia from the values promoted by “Western propaganda”.

The laws were allegedly influenced by the Georgian Orthodox Church, which advocated for government regulation of “LGBTQ+ propaganda” in 2023. According to Reuters, the population of Georgia generally disapproves of same-sex marriage.

The UK embassy expressed concern that the new laws will undermine the fundamental human rights of all Georgians. EU Delegation Georgia expressed similar concerns and stated that the laws will prevent Georgia from joining the EU. While Georgia has long had aspirations to join the EU, geopolitical considerations have pushed it to a closer relationship with neighbouring Russia.