TBILISI, November 1. /TASS/. The ruling "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" political party will never abolish the law outlawing the propaganda of LGBT relations [the LGBT movement is deemed extremist and outlawed in Russia], even if it complicates the country’s integration into the EU for several years, the party’s executive secretary Mamuka Mdinaradze said.
"Even if [the anti-LGBT] law creates temporary obstacles for us, we will not take these so-called [European] ‘values’ into account. It is better to be late by 2 or 3 years [in regard to European integration - TASS], but we will never, and I underscore, never withdraw the law outlawing LGBT propaganda," Mdinaradze said during a briefing.
He stated that the Georgian authorities will not trade the traditional future of future generations for the achievement of "their mercantile political goals." According to the politician, LGBT propaganda has nothing to do with European values.
"We do not want such a Europe, and we cannot imagine such a Europe," he added.
On September 17, the Georgian Parliament passed a law that prohibits the propaganda of LGBT relations and gender reassignment. EU leaders have repeatedly criticized this law, claiming that it violates the rights of a certain group of citizens.
The latest amendment to the law outlaws all marriages except for the marriage of a man and a woman, bans the adoption of minors by homosexual couples, and imposes criminal penalties of 1 to 4 years in prison for gender reassignment surgeries. The law also introduces fines for LGBT propaganda in educational facilities; broadcasters are forbidden from airing homosexual scenes and advertisements with similar content. Dissemination of materials on homosexual relations and gender reassignment among minors is subject to a fine. All public gatherings and manifestations aimed at promoting the LGBT topic are now prohibited.