Given that LGBT issues have sparked public outrage in Georgia before, the Facebook pages’ likely aim in renewing anti-LGBT messages was to fuel and amplify negative reactions among the public. The anti-Western Facebook pages started to spread their messages actively after the Tbilisi Pride organizers announced the dates of the 2019 event. The Facebook pages shared identical posts almost simultaneously, suggesting that there was likely some degree of coordinated activity.
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In March 2019, a number of Georgian anti-Western and far-right Facebook pages shared anti-LGBT narratives that demonized the West and portrayed the LGBT community as a threat to Georgia.
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Posts by the Kardhu page highlighted Poland’s ban on same-sex marriage and claimed that, in Germany, after a woman said that there are only two genders, she provoked “mass hysteria from singled-cell liberals.” (The term “single-celled liberal” is employed by pro-Kremlin actors to disparage progressive activists in the West.) As of the time of this analysis, Kardhu’s page had a sizeable audience relative to Georgia of 26,827 followers. The first of the five, “კარდჰუ” (“Kardhu”), largely shared anti-Western content since its creation in 2017 but started to spread specifically anti-LGBT narratives in mid-March. (Source: Facebook/ archive)įive other anonymous pages had less direct associations with real-life groups but nevertheless posted anti-LGBT content frequently. The page uploaded a photo of its letter to the Tbilisi mayor’s office requesting permission to stage demonstrations during Pride Week. In a Facebook post, the Georgian far-right group Georgian March opposed the 2019 Tbilisi Pride event.
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One such page, run by far-right group Georgian March - which Transparency International Georgia has identified as a Neo-Nazi organization - threatened to sabotage Tbilisi Pride 2019, stating in a Facebook video that the only way “the celebration of perversion” would take place would be for the LGBT activists to “march over Georgian March’s dead bodies.” They demonized the West and liberal democracy, as well as presented the LGBT community as a threat to Georgia. In most cases, the posts and narratives shared by these pages were identical to one another. In the first week of March, shortly after the organizers announced their plans for the event, anti-LGBT narratives started to proliferate on a number of Georgian far-right Facebook pages. Facebook Pages Spreading Anti-LGBT Narratives The counter-protesters, many of whom carried improvised weapons, attacked the activists, forcing the police to evacuate the LGBT demonstrators out of concern for their safety. The counter-protesters carried signs with homophobic messages, including some that compared the activists to “ Sodom and Gomorrah,” a reference to a Bible story that is often weaponized against members of the LGBT community. On May 17, 2013, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, a small group of LGBT rights demonstrators in Tbilisi were confronted by thousands of counter-protesters led by a group of Georgian Orthodox priests.
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June is celebrated around the world as LGBT Pride Month in commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall riots, when the New York City LGBT community demonstrated against police raids on the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the city.
Georgia gay pride meme series#
In 2018, LGBT rights activists cancelled a series of planned rallies in Tbilisi following threats from several Georgian anti-LGBT groups.Īccording to the Tbilisi Pride organizers, the event intends to shed some light on the difficulties the LGBT community faces in Georgia and hopes to provide a positive platform for them. LGBT people often face rampant homophobia, violence, and discrimination in traditionally conservative countries such as Georgia. (Source: EtoBuziashvili/DFRLab via OC Media)Ī number of Georgian anti-Western and far-right Facebook pages began to disseminate anti-LGBT content, following the announcement of Georgia’s first-ever large-scale pride event, Tbilisi Pride, set to take place June 18–23, 2019.