Georgia’s LGBT + campaign cancels pride march after Reuters attack on office

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Georgian LGBT + campaigners called for a march of pride on Monday when violent anti-violence groups stormed an office in the capital Tbilisi and targeted activists and journalists.

Activists kicked off five days of LGBT + Pride celebrations last Thursday and on Monday staged a “March for Dignity” in central Tbilisi, criticizing churches and conservatives for saying the event had no place in Georgia.

The march plan was suspended on Monday before counter-protesters began.

Video footage released by LGBT + activists as protesters threw rainbow flags that reached the balcony that scaled their building and saw them enter the Tbilisi Pride office.

In other films, he showed a bloodied mouth and nose to a journalist and a man on a skateboard on the street to reporters.

Campaigners said some equipment was broken in the attack.

“Yet words cannot express my emotions and thoughts. This is my work space, my home, my family today. I am left alone in the face of the harsh violence,” tweeted Tamaz Sozashvili, an LGBT activist.

The media reported that a tourist was stabbed for allegedly wearing an earring.

The Interior Ministry asked activists to cancel the march for security reasons. He noted in a statement that several groups were gathering and protesting and that journalists had been violently beaten.

“Once again we publicly call on the participants in the ‘Tbilisi Pride’ film to stop the ‘Dignity March’ … because of the scale of counter-demonstrations planned by opposition groups …” he said.

Several West Georgian embassies issued a joint statement condemning the attack and urging authorities to ensure freedom of expression and assembly.

“The violence is unacceptable and unforgivable,” the document says.

President Salome Zourabichvili, when she visited the injured journalist, said the violence was a “violation of Georgia’s basic fabric”.

“What happened is not Georgia I know,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s not based on Georgia’s core values ​​of tolerance.”

In a statement, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said the march was “unreasonable” and said it was in danger of causing public confrontation and was unacceptable to most Georgians, Civil Georgia media reported.

Rights activists condemned the violence and accused Garibashvili of inciting hate groups.

“The violent far-right crowd that supports the church and the utterly irresponsible statement of the Prime Minister (Garibashvili) gathered in Tbilisi to prevent the Pride March, attack journalists and break into the Pride office,” wrote Giorgi Gogia, who works for US Human Rights Watch.