Parliament Speaker: “Sexual orientation” and “gender identity” are not new to Georgian legislation

Parliament Speaker Davit Usupashvili is appealing to the Georgian society not to yield certain groups of speculation regarding the heavily discussed anti-discrimination law.

At a press-conference today, Usupashvili marked that the reason of recent developments around the law was because of a lack of information, and said there were some political interests to drive ongoing processes in the opposite direction.

Therefore, the Speaker emphasized that the terms "sexual orientation” and "gender identity” were not new to the Georgian legislation and that these notions had existed since 1997.

"It is a mistake to claim that the new terms are being brought through this Bill into Parliament's legislative space - "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" existing in Georgian law since 1997.

In 1997, in the law about patient's rights it was written that it banned the discrimination and indifferent treatment by medical personnel to the patient due to their sexual orientation. Moreover, the law of "Georgian Public Broadcaster” passed in 2004 highlighted that the broadcaster, as well as other TV channels, are prohibited to transfer  programmes which contains abuse of a person due to his physical abilities, religion view, gender, sexual orientation or other status,” Usupashvili said.

Meanwhile, the anti-discrimination Bill passed in Parliament on April 2014 with 110 votes to 0 during its first reading. The Bill was heavily criticized by rights groups as a ineffective legislation, failing to provide effective mechanism of enforcement of anti-discrimination measures. The Bill has also come under attack from conservative and radical Orthodox groups.

Clergy and worshipers held a protest rally in front of the Parliament building in Kutaisi. The protestors demanded the immediate suspension of the Bill's adoption.

The draft law was discussed behind closed doors between the law-makers and clergy in the Legislative Body today. Some of religious leaders have already left the meeting. They noted an agreement had been reached and the protest would end.

"They promised that in the law there would not be something out in it that offends orthodoxy. Definitely not gay or same-sex marriages are not included in this law. I ask you to explain to the community and understand that this is nothing against the law,” Ioseb monk of Gelati Monastery announced.