Pride and Prejudice

Some thoughts on the Gay Pride parade that never was (and never will be, if some politicians here in Tbilisi get their way)...

An event which was never even planned and would probably be impossible to stage has created a summertime scandal in Georgia – a row which has again highlighted the dubious ideologies of some politicians who claim to be democrats.

Rumours that that a Gay Pride march was due to take place this month started circulating on internet forums earlier in the year. A Georgian opposition leader then entered the debate, suggesting that the government was responsible for organising it, as part of what he described as its mission to destroy Georgian values: “The goal is to break this absolutely rock-solid part of the Georgian mentality and Georgian identity - Christian morality,” alleged the oppositionist, former minister Goga Khaindrava.

A few days ago, the highly influential Georgian Orthodox Church issued a statement calling on the authorities to prevent the acolytes of “Sodom and Gomorrah” from marching through the streets, in order to avoid social unrest. “Homosexual deviation is a great sin,” admonished the Georgian Patriarchate. It also warned that those who supported the legalisation of homosexuality would suffer “God’s wrath” and bring down divine punishment on the entire country.

Homosexuality has, of course, been legal in Georgia for several years, and the country is signed up to European anti-discrimination conventions. But the authorities have kept silent on the row so far, perhaps because they’re fearful of public disapproval in what remains an overwhelmingly socially conservative nation. Three years ago, an event dedicated to ‘tolerance’ was even cancelled after rumours spread that it was going to be a gay-rights promotion.

Some opposition radicals – including, ironically, a representative of the ‘Freedom’ party - have been using the mythical Pride march to try to make political capital at the expense of Mikheil Saakashvili’s administration. By doing so, they’ve shown that they have less concern for human rights than a government which they accuse of restricting civil liberties.

But Paata Subelashvili, a spokesman for Georgia’s only gay-rights organisation, the Inclusive Foundation, said he wasn’t worried by such displays of what he called “modern-day primitive thinking”. Subelashvili believes, somewhat optimistically, that the scandal has at least inspired a public debate about homosexuality. “There is progress because it’s no longer a taboo, it’s being discussed,” he explained. “Even such negative things can be positive in the long run.”