07. Mai 2007
Lage von Homosexuellen
a-5456 (ACC-GEO-5456)
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Rechtliche Lage
“As it is seen from the study, legislation of Georgia, although being in general in conformity with European standards with regards to prohibition of discrimination, does not offer specific guarantees and instruments for protecting individuals from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Therefore, it is recommended that provisions related to prohibition of discrimination in various legal acts be amended to specifically forbid discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation. Moreover, labour legislation should be improved for the sake of expanding anti discrimination provisions to other stages than the stage of employee recruitment.
Criminal legislation of Georgia is in general free of discriminatory provisions concerning sexual orientation. However, no official statistical data is known concerning instances of arrest and detention of LGBT people or number of complaints from their side concerning mistreatment.
Unfortunately, provisions regarding family visits in prison legislation make same sex visits subject to complicated procedures for proving partnership duration. Yet, no official or unofficial data is known that strict implementation of the mentioned provision make same sex partner visits impossible.
For the aforementioned areas, further study of practical situation is desirable. Situation should be analyzed, through interviewing and sociological research in order to ascertain whether indicated provisions are properly implanted in practice.
Adoption legislation specifically bans child adoption by same sex partners. Hence, it is recommended that it is brought in compliance with contemporary European legal standards concerning elimination of discrimination in the issues of adoption.
Legislation of Georgian concerning blood donation contains a specific prohibition for blood donation for members of risk groups, among which homosexuals are mentioned.
As for legislation concerning change of sex, it has to be noted, that present regulations concerning change of IDs do not present particular difficulties for change of name, patronymic name, and last name on the basis of change of sex. However, same cannot be said about change of sex in the international passport, as Georgian legislation does not contain regulation concerning this issue. Therefore, it is recommended that civil registration legislation be thoroughly studied, reviewed and amended with the view of its improvement and harmonization with recent practice of the European Court of Human Rights.
In summary, it can be said that although Georgian legislation has significantly improved after Georgia joined the Council of Europe, it requires further improvement with the view of its harmonization with contemporary European principles regarding prohibition of discrimination towards LGBTs.”
“Georgia Laws: 1. Has no sodomy laws, the age of sexual consent is 16 for all.”
“Laws covering sexual activity
Status
Same-sex male: Legal
Same-sex female: Legal
Description of discriminatory sexual offence laws and their application
A message in July 2000 to ILGA confirms that a new criminal code which removed all discriminatory provisions was passed by the Georgian parliament on 22 July 1999 and entered into force on 1 June 2000.”
Diskriminierung
“Georgia is a country where east meets west. The major cities continue to develop a gay scene that attracts an ever increasing number of tourists.
Georgia was the first country in South Caucasus to decriminalize Homosexuality when it joined Council of Europe. The age of consent is set at 16 years for both hetero- and homosexuals. Legislation does not contain discriminatory clauses, yet insufficient anti-discrimination legislation often creates gaps. Georgia also has the first LGBT organization in the region and is known as most open-minded country compared to other two in the region. However, Georgia, as a post communist, orthodox and very traditional society, is still not very open towards gays and lesbians. In the large urban societies homosexuality is better accepted than in the rural areas. Concept of guest in Georgian mentality, however, would provide for an exceptional attitude towards visitors whether gay or not. It is very convenient to hold hands in public and greet each other by kissing on chick once – this is very common in Georgia.
Although, a gay scene in the western sense of the word hardly exists, Tbilisi, the capital offers very diverse choice of places worth visiting. Perovskaia and Chardin areas of the capital offer vast number of places starting from very traditional Georgian to street-cafe, international ethnic or fusion ambiance.
It is very difficult to fine tune your gaydar in Tbilisi. People might be looking at you without any intention and not look at all when there are some strings attached. There are no official gay bars or clubs in Tbilisi. Tbilisi gays do not like to hang out in the places with frequent appearance of gays, one can see them in an upscale places of any profile.
Cruising in any sense, whether in Bar, bath or parks is considered a very bad tone by local community. Especially street/park cruising is very dangerous, this is where gays are exposed to most violence. New patrol police does not harass gays and in fact is very helpful and prompt in responding to violations.”
“I.6 Men who have sex with men (MSM) and male homosexuality
In Georgia, male homosexuality is far more stigmatised than women’s sexuality. But the things are not as simple as that. The ‘normative’ gender role of males in Georgia implies dominance, aggressiveness, sexiness, courage, and other purely ‘machismo’ qualities (recall that the label ‘coward’ was used only by Georgian respondents to describe people who use condoms). Homosexuals, understood by society as people who have ‘changed their original gender role,’ have become the object of general hatred and aggression from the majority of society as well as from the Georgian Orthodox Church. The result of the predominating homophobia in Georgia is the fact that homosexuals are deprived of any chance to openly demonstrate their sexual orientation or organise associations or groups. As a result, there are often strong ties between groups of male homosexuals. (It is worth noting that not all men who have sex with men identify themselves as homosexual.)
There has been no study on HIV and STI prevalence or investigation of risk behaviour among the MSM population in Georgia. Although the number of MSM can’t be estimated, the reported HIV prevalence among MSM is low (3.0%).
However, it is safe to assume that some of the officially registered HIV cases for which the routes of transmission are undetermined could be attributed to unprotected sexual contacts among MSM (not reported as such due to the associated stigma).
A peculiar attitude towards homosexual men can be clearly seen in the way those who are open about their sexuality are treated in detention places; they are usually kept in separate cells and are called ‘hens.’
Outside of prison settings, it is fairly difficult to identify homosexual men. Despite several attempts to open ‘gay’ bars and nightclubs where MSM could socialise, none have been successful. Because of strong social pressure, the homosexual community depends on an ‘underground’ life with no desire to reveal themselves publicly. This makes it extremely difficult to conduct HIV/STI prevention and education among MSM in Georgia.
As a result, this key population remains cut off from HIV- and AIDS-related prevention, treatment, and care interventions, and the stigmatisation and marginalisation by the society only heightens their vulnerability to HIV.”
„Have you ever experienced any of the following events because someone knew or presumed you to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex and/or transgender?[1]
15.1. Name calling directed at you: 28,00
15.2. Threatened with physical violence: 22,00
15.3. Personal property damaged/destroyed: 10,00
15.4. Objects thrown at you: 15,00
15.5. Chased or followed: 18,00
15.6. Spat at: 10,00
15.7. Been left out or ignored deliberately: 11,00
15.8. Punched, hit, kicked or beaten: 8,00
15.9. Assaulted or wounded with a weapon: 4,00
15.10. Sexually harassed (without assault): 11,00
15.11. Sexually assaulted: 13,00
15.12. Raped: 6,00
15.13. Harassed by the police without assault: 4,00
15.14. Beaten or assaulted by the police: 4,00
15.15. Other kinds of discrimination: 4,00
15.16. Never experienced any of the above: 70,00
[…]
Only 6 cases have been reported and none of the victims of discrimnation felt satisfied with the outcomes. Respondents would report to NGOs, International human rights organizations, Ombudsman, Police or Media. For the reaons of dissatisfaction with how their complaints were treated respondents mostly quote indifference from the public agencies and antidiscrimination legislation gaps. Reasons for not reporting human rights violations include all above quoted one as well as security and privacy concerns.
How would you characterize the public attitude towards the sexual minorities?
intolerant 57,5 %
indifferent 24,2 %
accepting 10,0 %
other 6, 7%“
“Only one respondent speaks about legitimizing partnership, however, only on surface.
(Georgian lesbians are also against of same sex marriages. “If we marry, I am sure we will be bashed or destroyed mentally”, - writes one girl. As long as she remains closeted, she does not feel discriminated. However, she is sure that it is way too early to speak about rights of sexual minorities. 13.10.2005)
Conclusion:
1) Phobia and hatred towards ‘different’ sexuality that exists in heterosexual society is well reflected in inferiority feelings among majority of homosexuals.
2) During representing themselves, they revert to homophobic terminology. Quite often, they themselves demonstrate homophobia towards themselves and other forms of sexual diversity.
3) Very small parts of their conversations are devoted to description of sexual/corporal experiences and partner relations.
4) Majority of interviewees are traumatized, lonely personalities or well concealed couples. They do not discuss coming out, existence of community, necessity of protection of their rights or legitimization of relationships. Majority of them prefers to remain closeted than to be politically active.”
„Gleichgeschlechtliche Beziehungen seien zwar nach Angaben der Helsinki Citizens Assembly nicht verboten, de facto seien sie allerdings auch nicht erlaubt. Transsexualität sei gesellschaftlich verächtet. Geschlechtsumwandlungen habe es in Georgien nach Angaben der Helsinki Citizens Assembly zwar schon gegeben, da die operativen Eingriffe allerdings im Geheimen durchgeführt wurden und nicht an die Öffentlichkeit kamen, könne man keine seriöse Einschätzung über ein eventuelles Gefährdungsrisiko für Personen, die sich einem solchen Eingriff unterzögen, treffen. Homosexualität gehöre in Georgien nach Ansicht des Mitarbeiters des CIPDD zu den absoluten Tabuthemen.“
“Nor is it just religious minorities that are under fire. Gvakharia says homosexuals and Armenians are also finding themselves being discriminated against. Ramishvili at the Liberty Institute agrees: "It’s absolutely impossible to speak about the rights of homosexuals because it’s hidden. It’s not reported. Nobody complains about violations, but you can detect this hate on every corner. I think it’s hate toward people who are different. When these hate speakers want to stigmatize someone, they are portraying their opponents as homosexual, Armenian, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Freemasons."
When Sandro Bregadze, a member of parliament from the Aghordzineba (Renaissance) Party, says on television that Hitler got it right when he drowned homosexuals, there is little or no protest. When Vakhtang Rcheulishvili, the leader of the Socialist Party, stigmatizes the leader of another party by calling him gay and Armenian, nobody bats an eye.”
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[1] Anmerkung von ACCORD: Aus den Angaben geht nicht hervor, ob es sich bei den Zahlen um einen Prozentsatz oder um absolute Zahlen handelt
