08:18, 30 April 2014

Kutaisi hosts rally against anti-discrimination legislation

Kutaisi, Georgia. View of the Annunciation Church. Photo: Vladimer Shioshvili, http://commons.wikimedia.org/. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

A protest against the antidiscrimination legislation was held on April 29 in Kutaisi. It happened after the statement of the Patriarchate of Georgia against adoption of the bill.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 17 the Georgian parliament adopted the above antidiscrimination bill in the first reading. The document prohibits any discrimination of citizens on the basis of origin, nationality, religion, occupation, gender and sexual orientation.

In the opinion of the Patriarchate, the bill is perceived by believers as "propaganda and legitimization of the deadly sin," since the document contains the terms of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" in the list of grounds for discrimination, says the above statement.

After the Patriarchate's statement appeared, a protest action began at the building of the Georgian Parliament. The protesters demanded to suspend the consideration of the bill, which was drafted within the framework of the action plan for liberalization towards a short-term visa-free regime with the European Union, the Georgian Internet resource "Front News" reports.