2013 Tbilisi anti-homophobia rally protests

rdf:langString 2013 Tbilisi anti-homophobia rally protests

rdf:langString Demonstrations, violent clashes

rdf:langString Georgian Orthodox priests, up to 20,000 "ultra-conservative Orthodox supporters"

rdf:langString A rally against homophobia was held in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 17, 2013, the International Day Against Homophobia. Gay rights activists holding the rally were met by thousands of protestors opposing homosexuality, who were allowed to break through a police cordon and violently pursued them, beating and throwing stones at them. Two days earlier, Ilia II of Georgia, the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, had called for banning the gay rights rally, describing homosexuality as an "anomaly and disease." The day before the rally, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili stated that LGBT individuals "have the same rights as any other social groups" in Georgia. Dozens of gay rights activists had gathered in downtown Tbilisi for the rally. A reported 20,000 Georgian Orthodox church members protested, led by church priests, and a clash ensued in Pushkin Park, near Freedom Square. Police forces did not prevent the homophobic protesters from running at the anti-homophobia rally participants, as priests asked. Anti-homophobia demonstrators were evacuated by the police in buses, which were attacked by the counter-demonstrators. 17 people were injured in the clashes.