I am writing this article as a potential “conveyor of the interests of a foreign country” and “propagandist”. The government will give me the first “rank” after signing the law, against my will, before the second there are procedures: presenting the results of the constitutional discussions in the parliament, initiating the draft law and making changes in about 40 laws. The process is long, but the Georgian Dream promises that it will pass the law before the elections, then it will win the elections, it will come with a majority and at the level of the constitution it will prohibit us from writing about the rights and needs of the queer community, which it considers “LGBT propaganda”. Information provided in any form about LGBTQ+ people, like this article, cannot change your orientation, but I will try to see how the government is trying to change your attitude towards the queer community with different narratives.

The political homophobia of the Georgian Dream did not really start on the day when one of the leaders of the party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, announced the bill banning “LGBT propaganda”. We can consider May 17, 2013 as the initial stage, when the party that came to power a few months ago, in which the voters saw the strengthening of democratic values, allowed the clergy, parishioners and violent groups to abuse the queer community and did not protect the freedom of expression and safety of citizens. Then there were many days of the fight against homophobia and the pride week, the safety of which was held in an open space again, the law enforcement bodies did not ensure. There have been decisions at the state level that have purposefully harmed and limited the queer community, and of course there have been discriminatory statements by high-ranking politicians that have put LGBTQ+ people at risk and encouraged violence.

Also, there were the constitutional changes of 2017, when the Georgian dream decided to call the family only for the unity of a man and a woman, despite the fact that equal marriage was already limited by our legislation. And now we have the 2024 constitutional amendment project, by which they want to make it a law that “a woman is a woman” and “a man is a man”. In this process, they are trying to erase the boundaries between the concepts of gender, sex and sexuality, impose censorship and at the same time prove to us that all this will not harm the rights of the queer community and is only aimed at protecting children. However, the party’s rhetoric, message boxes, the activities of official media and troll pages related to them show us completely different goals: trying to aim conservative voters towards them, creating an image of the enemy for neutral voters and offering “rescue”, discrediting the opposition and civil society.

In order to be sure of this, we have studied the statements of the government representatives since the announcement of the ban on “LGBT propaganda”, their speeches at the constitutional debates, the coverage of this issue in the media with openly pro-government politics, and the discrediting campaign on social networks.

The material uses homophobic and discriminatory terms and phrases that the authorities and their supporters spread. Aprili Media does not share their content, is completely detached and only offers it based on high public interest.

What Is (Not) Propaganda

Let’s start with the most important thing and explain what propaganda is. It is the spreading of information for a specific purpose in order to have a desired effect on the target audience.

Let’s follow the sources. For example, at Britannica, propaganda is defined as the dissemination of information by facts, arguments, rumours, half-truths or lies to influence public opinion. It is a more or less systematic effort to manipulate other people’s beliefs, attitudes, or actions. To increase the effect of propaganda, propagandists may distort facts, lie or try and distract the target audience.

Let’s look at the Merriam Webster dictionary, where propaganda is defined as spreading ideas, information or rumors with the intention of harming or helping someone/something. Also, deliberately spreading ideas, news, or accusations to further one’s own ends.

To be sure, let’s take a look at the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary, which explains that it is information or ideas disseminated by an organized group or government to influence public opinion.

If you do not trust western sources as a result of the influence of government propaganda, we will also offer you Georgian ones – in the dictionary of civic education, propaganda is defined as a form of information delivery, which involves the planned use of any form of communication in order to influence people’s minds, emotions and behavior. Propagandists may use different methods to persuade their audience, but they all have one thing in common — they target the audience’s values ​​and beliefs. It is said here that it is one of the main tools of politics, which aims to create and strengthen a public opinion that will be favorable to the propagandist and will facilitate the implementation of his policy.

Since we already know the definition of propaganda, we can easily agree that it needs several main factors: the disseminator – whose interests include managing society with propagandistic narratives, and the target audience – on whom the propaganda must affect and change or form an opinion.

So, when the government claims that “LGBT propaganda” exists, we should ask ourselves who is spreading it and what is its purpose? To answer this question, it turns out that we have to believe in the conspiracy theory, as if there is a pseudo-liberal lobby in the West whose goal is to turn us all into gays and lesbians. Why should they have this goal? Should we trust the conspiracy theory to answer this and think that they want to destroy Georgian culture? why Even the conspiracy theory can’t give us an answer to this. A separate issue is that the LGBTQIA+ community is not at all against Georgian culture and traditions. Moreover, many outstanding aspects of Georgian culture were members of the community.

So, the issue of the spreader and his goals came into question. Now let’s talk about the target audience, which is all over Georgia. That is, when we allow “LGBT propaganda” to exist, we allow the fact that we or any other person can be influenced by the talk, hearing the story, watching the movie, etc. Yes, propaganda with these methods really has an impact, but not when it comes to sexual orientation, gender identity. To put it bluntly, you can’t become gay by talking.

If someone tells you as a counter argument that a heterosexual person became gay or lesbian when “lifestyle changed”, you need to know that this is manipulation and information given without context. Queer people are often forced to hide their identity due to a homophobic environment and start talking about it when they are ready. Some queers hide their identity throughout their lives. Therefore, “propaganda” does not influence and “propaganda” does not “increase their numbers”, but increasing acceptance in society allows them to speak about their own identity.

Here, let’s not forget the main thing, that if you promise to protect a citizen from something, this something must be negative, dangerous. Therefore, apart from the fact that “LGBT propaganda” does not exist, this term itself is discriminatory and homophobic.

The real propaganda is carried out by the government, which serves to form aggression and hatred against LGBTQIA+ people. This is how Georgian Dream tries to portray queers as dangerous, “perverted” and exclude them from society.

The Law that Restricts LGBTQIA+ Rights and Imposes Censorship

On February 29, Mamuka Mdinaradze announced from the party office that “in order to protect against pseudo-liberal values”, they would develop a bill that would ban “LGBT propaganda”. The content of the briefing and the rhetoric used by Mdinaradze indicated from the beginning that the goal was to once again use the queer community as a political tool, to demonize it and to further limit it.

The goal of the law to “ban LGBT propaganda” is a mission unfulfilled because it is impossible to ban something that does not exist. Let’s repeat once more:

• You can’t become queer by being called to — LGBTQ+ people existed long before queer movies and TV series were made.
• The fact that over the years the number of people who identify as queer has been increasing in various studies is not the result of “propaganda” – speaking about one’s identity out loud is no longer dangerous in some countries and acceptance in that society has increased.
• Queer representation in movies, series, literature and media has increased not because the Western “pseudo-liberal lobby” is trying to “pervert” and “gay” the world community, but because any industry is growing, becoming more inclusive and trying to cover everyone equally.
• The narrative of “gay propaganda” by influential organizations and individuals in the West is as much a conspiracy theory as the existence of the “Global War Party”.

In the following days, Mdinaradze held several briefings and spoke to journalists several times in the parliament. Each of his speeches was aimed at fixing the position of the opposition on this issue. The deputy did not hide that they had a goal to find out who would not support the initiative, which they presented as protection of family, nation and traditional values. Accordingly, the opponent of the initiative should be brought out as an opponent of the country, religion and children’s interests. They asked the same question – what did the opposition think and urged them to cooperate on this initiative. Two television stations with pro-government politics did the same: TV company Imedi and POSTV.

Propaganda of the Government Media

Observing the television coverage shows that the goal was to shape public opinion and not to analyze the issue that was presented as a problem. For example, in the story of Imedi’s March 1 news release, the journalist repeated what the ruling team said that they rely on international studies when talking about the dangers of “propaganda”, but did not mention which countries or what studies they are talking about and how they are interpreted.

We can also assume that the target audience of the stories prepared on this topic was conservative voters of the opposition. For example, the story of Imedi’s morning news broadcast on March 3 began as follows: “The Khazaradze-Japaridze party is not going to fight against the propaganda of non-traditional lifestyle. The former bankers do not plan to participate in the discussion of the draft law because this issue is not relevant for them”. In the 14- and 15-hour stories, they said that “the opposition does not see the need to fight against the propaganda of unconventional lifestyle in the country”.

On the same day, the content of the story in the POSTV program was aimed at discrediting the opposition. They tried to discredit it by saying that the parties have at various times supported the queer community and opposed the previous amendment to the constitution. The presenter said: “We have to wait for how long the opposition will be in the ostrich position.”

The desire to discredit the opposition before the elections was indicated by the comment of Georgian Dream deputy Nino Tsilosani in the story of Imedi on March 4: “If any party or its representative has a different position and believes that LGBT propaganda, agitation or the normalization of these issues to a certain extent and overlapping of our values ​​may be acceptable to them, the main line of their ideology, of course, they can come out with these messages and this agitation during the pre-election campaign and gain public support”.

On the same day, in the broadcast of POSTV, the presenter said: “What is important for the absolute majority of the society is a threat to the political interests of the National Movement opposition. Today POSTV asked the opposition a simple question whether they support the LGBT propaganda bill that the ruling team will introduce in 2 weeks. The opposition avoids the questions and calls the problem invented”.

The opposition deputies refrained from a detailed assessment of the initiative and said that the government was trying to divert attention from real problems. Journalists of TV company Imedi called this “argumentless rhetoric” and said that “it is a developed common message”.

When they did not get the answer they expected from the parties, the archive entered the subject of the stories. In particular, the public was reminded of the critical assessments of the opposition deputies during the changes to the constitution in 2017 and tried to show that they were on the side of queers. The question is whether this is actually the case, but even if it is, it is not clear why the media should criticize politicians for supporting human rights.

Since March 9, official media based on “exclusive information” simultaneously tried to discredit the opposition and Tbilisi Pride. The stories prepared by them were probably based on the letter sent by Tbilisi Pride to the donors, in which the expected threats were discussed. Imedi’s journalist said in the story: “We have obtained the strategy of the opposition, which is followed by parties on the issue of fighting against LGBT propaganda, and which Tbilisi Pride agrees with donors.”

The next day, in a story prepared on the same topic, the deputy of Georgian Dream, Givi Mikanadze, reinforced the same narrative: “Tbilisi Pride is one of those groups that dictates specific tasks and specific guidelines and instructions to specific political entities.”

This line in stories lasted for several days. For example, on March 16, the journalist’s text in Qronika was as follows: “What do we know about the initiative on LGBT propaganda announced 2 weeks ago: first — the initiative is still an initiative; Second, the discussion space is open again, but the people discussing are not visible; Thirdly, the opposition is still silent and receives the directive of this silence from the non-governmental sector, specifically from Tbilisi Pride”.

These TV companies covered the presentation of the book “Blue” and other queer activities, which were called “LGBT propaganda” even before the law was passed, and were connected to the opposition in various ways.

Natalia Avaliani / Aprili Media

In addition, during this period, there were stories on both televisions about the training organized by Tbilisi Pride for journalists, which was about the coverage of queer community issues and disinformation. TV companies repeated that actions were planned at the meetings, despite the fact that both the organizers and the participants denied this. Stories were made that the opposition tried its best not to talk about this issue and covered it with other topics, which, according to official journalists, was the plan of PR consultant Jeremy Rosner.

The announced 2-week deadline for submitting the initiative was extended several times. As the presentation approached, the narrative that the law is aimed at protecting rights, not at violating them, became stronger and stronger in official media news releases.

On March 25, Mamuka Mdinaradze presented a legislative initiative and we learned that they were planning constitutional changes. Adoption of laws, which only need the support of 76 deputies, was announced this year, and constitutional changes became a kind of election promise.

The changes consist of 8 points. According to Mdinaradze, the first five points are “conditions of order” that serve to “build awareness and the corresponding right attitude”, while the last 3 points “prohibit popularization during the gathering, work and distribution in educational institutions”.

Since we have already agreed that there is no such thing as propaganda and, therefore, there is no need to protect against it, the result of the implementation of this law will only be the restriction and censorship of the fundamental rights of the queer community. Access to medical services for transgender people during the transition process is in question, and they will not be able to indicate the correct gender on their identity documents if it does not match their biological sex. In addition, movies and TV series may cut scenes that depict queer relationships.

We should not forget the indirect influence of the law – the society, which is repeated at the level of the law and the constitution, that the “propaganda” of the lifestyle of LGBTQ+ people is a threat to the future of their children, will be focused on hatred and homophobia. But the government does not talk about these threats and stubbornly repeats that rights will not be limited and, moreover, will be better protected.

Before I tell you how the Georgian Dream presented these changes to society, I will briefly tell you how Russia and Hungary went through the same processes.

Russia:

• The law prohibiting “LGBT propaganda” was adopted in Russia in 2013 — the original version prohibited “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors and provided for a fine for citizens, and for legal entities a fine and/or suspension of the right to work;
• In 2022, the law was tightened and “LGBT propaganda” was banned among the entire population, as well as the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” and transition. The ban affected everything, including social networks, media, cinema, advertising and censorship. Relevant agencies no longer issued distribution certificates to films with queer stories, and distribution websites were blacklisted.
• In 2023, the law was tightened again, the criteria of “propaganda” were written, even if one of them is met, the website is blocked. For example: if the posted material is aimed at creating a positive image of people with “unconventional” sexual relations, causes interest in “unconventional” sexual relations and helps change negative attitudes to positive ones, the website will be blocked.
• In addition, Russia has a Foreign Influence Agents Act and an extremist “International LGBT Organization” — with these and other laws, the Kremlin discredits, persecutes, and detains queer rights NGOs and activists that have put LGBTQ+ people in Russia at risk, and He was forced to emigrate.

Hungary:

• The issue of the anti-LGBT bill was intensified in Hungary in the run-up to the 2021 election — Viktor Orbán’s government has amended the law on pedophilia and child protection to restrict minors’ access to books, films and other cultural products that “promote and promote trans, homosexuality, or depict deviance at birth” from an assigned gender [gender] identity”.
• The European Commission called on Hungary to bring the law into line with EU law, and after it refused, it filed a case with the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which has the power to amend national laws.
• Due to different interpretations of the law, the Budapest Pride promotional video was restricted from running during daylight hours; A bookstore was fined for having a book in the children’s section about a teenage coming-out story; The museum had to hide behind a special sign the photo called “Homosexuality”, on which two naked men were seen above this year.

You can read more about the experience of Russia and Hungary here: What Georgian Dream Is Trying to “Protect” before Elections, Russia “Protected” Already — See How. Here you will find out how the statements or narratives of Vladimir Putin and Georgian Dream are similar to each other .

Hateful Discussions of Hate Law

According to the procedure, amendments to the constitution require discussions. For this purpose, the organizing commission of universal-public review is created, which is composed of deputies. Discussions are held in different regions of Georgia.

Constitutional discussions started on April 22 in Kutaisi. The Chairman of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, announced the end on June 17, the International Day of the Fight against Homophobia, which cannot be celebrated publicly in Georgia anymore, because the Patriarchate established the Day of Family Sanctity and the government celebrates it with them.

The commission included the leaders of the Georgian Dream, members of the party formally separated from them, People’s Power, the leader of the European Socialists and the representative of the party for Georgia. Papuashvili said that all political groups accepted the offer to join the commission and added: “As for other political groups, we see their attitude. In the end, they do not take part in the discussion of the issues that are in the interest of the Georgian people”.

In fact, no critical voice was heard at the general public hearings, and the impression was left that mostly part-activists were present, because on the first day, the founder of the children’s literary club, teacher Mishiko Mumladze, was not allowed to attend the hearing in Kutaisi. Some of the attendees expressed their support and gratitude towards the Georgian Dream before asking the question.

Although the discussions were held in different halls, cities and regions, all meetings were similar.

The speakers mostly discussed the same narratives, and the attendees asked the same questions. Homophobic and discriminatory terms were heard at every meeting. The chairman of the parliament, who was represented as a moderator, did not separate the words “deviations”, “sickness”, “diseased” in relation to queers.

Moreover, Papuashvili himself and other deputies of the Georgian Dream voiced homophobic messages, said discriminatory phrases: “bisexual – it is not clear which way of life they really like”, “gender is a part of common sense, which cannot be changed at the genetic level”, “they will answer to God for their lifestyle”.

Propaganda Narratives Voiced in Discussions

By observing the statements made during the general public hearings, we identified the main narratives through which the deputies tried to influence public opinion, and we also found out who had a special contribution to the spread of which message box.

While Mamuka Mdinaradze attended the constitutional debates, he often repeated: “We must separate non-traditional lifestyle propaganda and protection of human rights from each other” and “Georgians are not taught tolerance and protection of human rights”. It was from him that the narrative of the separation of “propaganda and rights” began, which continued in the speeches of Davit Matikashvili and Anri Okhanashvili.

“No one cares, not one of us, not those in this hall, not the majority of the country, who lives in what way of life. We must be inseparable in this part as well and in no case make any kind of difference. Representing a minority or choosing a non-traditional way of life should not be the reason for any other attitude towards a person”, claimed Mamuka Mdinaradze in Kutaisi on April 22. It should be emphasized that this sentence is also homophobic because it presents identity as a way of life and a choice. In addition, Mdinaradze was clearly wrong when he said that no one cares about “who lives what lifestyle”, because just a few minutes later, a citizen in the same hall asked: when appointing people to public services, positions, schools, will they study the orientation of the people about whom there are rumors, or something is known, and he was interested in how it would be controlled: “Should we involve experts, how will it be?”.

On April 24, during the discussion in Ozurgeti, Mdinaradze tried to pretend that they care about the legal status of the queer community and said that “regardless of the non-traditional way of life”, the rights of all people should be thoroughly protected and there is an anti-discrimination law for this.

Davit Matikashvili diversified this narrative and added that “if the minority has the right to have a protected way of life, the majority also has the right not to propagate these pseudo-liberal values”. And on April 26, during the meeting in Zugdidi, he stated as follows: “Everyone has their own way of life, it is theirs, and we have no right to teach wisdom, not “live like this” or “live like that”. But they don’t have the right either, to teach us, the majority, our wisdom and tell us that they can influence our life with theirs”. You will probably not be surprised if I tell you that these statements of Matikashvili are also homophobic and that they harm human rights, despite his claims to the contrary.

And on May 11 in Telavi, Matikashvili repeated that we don’t need to be taught tolerance, rights will be protected and this change only applies to “propaganda”. On the same day, in Rustavi, Tengiz Sharmanashvili also assured us that rights will not be restricted, but with a phrase that does not add credibility to what he said, because it makes queer people “sinners”: “We will not interfere in anyone’s rights, they will answer to God for his lifestyle. But we must in no way allow minors to be brainwashed by this unimaginable ideology.”

Civil activist and director of Tbilisi Pride, Tamar Jakeli, states that the narrative of separating rights and “propaganda” is absurd and these changes will further limit the rights of the queer community.

“Queer people are now in despair and panic. Everyone understands that it affects us, our quality of life, our survival. If these constitutional changes are passed, many people are thinking of emigrating from the country. There was a big wave before that, and if the constitutional changes come into force, we will see the biggest wave of queer people emigrating, because Georgia will not be physically safe for them.

Transgender people will no longer have access to hormone therapy or any of the interventions that are available to some now. There will be an even bigger wave of hatred in the country, because when the government starts hate rhetoric, a number of hate-motivated crimes will follow, and polarization will affect, first of all, the oppressed groups,” Tamar Jakeli explains.

According to Tamar, there has been an increase in acceptance of queer people in the community in recent years, despite the government’s hostile rhetoric. But now that the government is all about demonizing the community, there is a chance that public sentiment will regress.

According to Shalva Papuashvili, “the reason and basis for initiating these changes are the trends that we all observe recently. Trends that are happening around the world. Our experience shows us that the trends that are outside, after a certain period of time, can be transferred to us, so we have to form from this point of view in relation to our family values”. This statement made by Papuashvili in Kutaisi on April 22 was a relatively different formulation of the fact that it is necessary to insure oneself against expected “dangers”. All other arguments on this topic incorporated the history of previous constitutional debates.

For example, the first deputy chairman of the Defense and Security Committee, Tengiz Sharmanashvili, started his conversation from the 1995 Constitution, and when he was not present, his colleagues quoted him.

“When Georgia adopted the 1995 edition of the Constitution, it was written that the family is the union of spouses. No one commented on this, no one even dreamed that the spouse could be anyone but a woman and a man. We have not been prevented, and no one has seen this danger,” said Sharmanashvili in Rustavi on May 11, and in fact he made an identical statement on the same day in Telavi.

Others were intensively repeating the story of the 2017 constitutional debates and trying to create a narrative that the country was saved from “danger” by writing down the definition of family, and no one was forced to legalize equal marriage.

It was not a very strong argument, although the hall was really refreshed by hearing stories about how Europe is trying to erase the words “ladies and gentlemen” from everyday use and how Georgian dream is trying to protect these words. In developing this narrative, the US State Department and its head Antony Blinken’s order to use neutral references were mentioned in a negative context.

“There is already a widespread trend when the address “ladies and gentlemen” is considered discriminatory. There are many airlines – when you fly abroad, they will address you not as “ladies and gentlemen”, but as “dear passengers”, – said Anri Okhanashvili in Ambrolauri on April 23. The question arises – does he not have information that Tbilisi subway, Georgian Railways and Georgian Airlines use the same address, or does he know this and is trying to mislead the population with manipulative narratives?

This question applies to other deputies as well, who tried one after another to convince the audience that the “right” to say “ladies and gentlemen” needs to be protected from the West.

There were also narratives that were repeated by only one person at every meeting and no one else. It’s unlikely that others disagreed with him, but for reasons unknown, only former public defender Sozar Subari took it upon himself to prove the narrative that children raised in queer families are more likely to have psychological problems than those raised by straight couples.

Subari cited scientific studies as evidence without naming the source, nor the period and context of the study. Studies with a similar content do exist, although the deputy did not say that over the years these results have been reviewed many times and analyzed what could be the reason. For example, some studies suggest that homophobic environments, the challenges of queer parenting, or inaccurate analysis of research data may be the cause of similar results, not that queer parents are bad and cause problems for children, as Subari tries to portray.

For example:

• In a 2022 study carried out in the Netherlands, we read that queer parents face significant stress factors due to their sexual orientation, which can lead to a decline in their physical and mental health, which in turn can affect their children.
• A scientific review published in Nature in 2023 explained that some of these studies did not take into account the stress factors and environment in which same-sex parents have to raise their children, nor that some of the children in the study did not grow up in such families from birth, and perhaps their stress came before moving into these families, from their parents getting divorced. As we read in the conclusion, 11 of the 17 studies reviewed show that there are no statistically significant differences that would confirm the link between children’s mental health and parental identity.

“Stress theory posits that queer parents experience stress from navigating heterosexual societies. Because of their sexual orientation, these parents face unique stressors such as misconceptions, negative feedback from friends and family, and a restrictive legal environment. LGBTQIA+ parents expect not only their own non-acceptance, but also their children’s non-acceptance, which adds to the stress of different identities and the general stress of parenting.

According to family systems theory, families are composed of interdependent subsystems, including parent and child subsystems. As a result of the spreading effect, family systems theory posits that the stress experienced by parents is inextricably linked to the mental health of their children. Combining insights from stress theory and family systems theory, we hypothesize that, due to excessive stress on the family system, children of queer parents may have more mental health problems than children of heterosexual parents,” the review reads.

Also, in a report published in 2023 in BMJ Global Health, in which the narrative evaluation and meta-analysis of researches created on this issue, it is mentioned that the sexual orientation of parents is not in itself a determinant of children’s development and all studies with positive or negative results should be analyzed. In their assessment, it is worth exploring how the legal and policy context affects the lives of queer couples and their children.

The government used general public hearings not only for the purpose of mobilizing people specifically around this law. At the same time, large-scale protests against the Russian law were held, and they tried to gain public support on this issue as well. This path also led to discrediting – in this case, not only NGOs, but also participants of the rally. The oath taken by young people, in which the words “homeland, language, unity” were heard, became the target of official propaganda.

“When we talk about the words of the great Ilia – homeland, language, faith – this is the triad, the cornerstone of Georgian’s attitude towards his homeland and his feelings. When they try to change things here, Georgian men and women will never allow it. When we move in this direction, we ensure transparency and what a true, Christian Europe stands for, for example, we see that at this time, they call awareness, transparency, your right to know everything in detail a Russian business,” said Mdinaradze in Kutaisi, 22 April.

This narrative was all over the place for several days — in the government media and on the social networks of their supporters. The campaign was easy to notice, because the very next day, Georgian Dream deputies simultaneously started publishing similar photos. Ultimately, the protestors were accused of neglecting religion.

Against this background, it is not surprising that on April 26, during the discussion in Zugdidi, Matikashvili spoke about opponents of the Russian law. He presented the “problem” of their statement in the spread of pseudo-liberal values, and the way of “correction” in the law prohibiting “propaganda”.

“The basis of the foundations, even the language, the estate, in the form of faith, which was the foundation of Ilias’s liberalism, was lost in this overwhelming situation. Today, we all saw, unfortunately, an attempt, just a short while ago, to change one of these people’s beliefs. Instead of language, homeland, faith, our young people are told to say language, homeland, unity. Who is against unity, is anyone against unity? But does this mean that the faith must be lost and lost from this triad, from this triad?”

In the context of attempts to discredit the protests against the Russian law, it is important to observe the anti-Western rhetoric during these discussions. The leaders of the Georgian Dream did not directly criticize or denigrate European institutions, although they tried to portray them as problematic with conspiracy theories and manipulation.

For example, Anri Okhanashvili “recalled” the same story in Kutaisi, Ambrolauri, Borjomi and Gori, how they demanded in the parliament, behind closed doors, to introduce gender education in kindergartens and how the Georgian dream resisted. All stories have one thing in common – nowhere is it specified who requested it, what kind of teaching was being discussed, etc. Accordingly, the society, which has a negative attitude due to this history, perceives the collective West as the enemy and directs aggression there, because it perceives it as a threat due to the desire to spread “LGBT propaganda” on children.

It was also significant that in the background of discrediting the opposition and civil society, Georgian Dream used the meeting for party advertising. Mdinaradze invited those present for the discussion in Kutaisi to the April 29 meeting, which was not a state event, but a counter protest to the protest against the Russian law.

“Perhaps there are many people here who support our political course. This will be a natural story. On the 29th, to give you information, on the 29th, there is a gathering that will support the government’s political course, and Georgia must show its strength that it supports transparency, nationalism, the ban on LGBT propaganda, and the correct, Georgian, solid national course, and in this we will count on your support and the support of all of Georgia”, said Mdinaradze.

According to Tamar Jakeli, the constitutional reviews are part of the pre-election campaign of the Georgian Dream – now it is less realistic to adopt changes and this initiative is being used to demonize the civil society and the opposition.

“They want to scare the population that if the Georgian dream is not accepted by the constitutional majority, after the elections, Georgia will be deprived of its traditions, subjected to pseudo-liberal propaganda and all this nonsense that they are talking about. This is an attempt to gain power.

Whether or not these constitutional amendments are passed now, we as community members are affected because the ongoing homophobic pre-election campaign to maintain and gain power directly affects us. The use of these completely absurd and discriminatory terms, the questions and the answers we heard during the discussions, reinforces the stigma.

In a certain segment of the society, there is a lack of information on queer issues, there are too many opinions saturated with stigma, and the Georgian dream plays on these sentiments, pours water on the existing stigma and tries to further deepen the sentiments motivated by hatred”, says the activist.

Not only the speakers were in the center of our attention. Repetition was not alien to the present audience either, so much so that questions of identical structure and similar content were heard in different regions.

There was an impression that some of the questions were sent in advance, but Mamuka Mdinaradze explained this repetition with common interests: “Naturally, whatever questions people have, when we were in other regions, the same questions came. For example, everyone is interested in the opinion of the Patriarchate”.

During the discussion, criticism was heard in the hall only once, when the activist Tsabunia Vartagava came to Zugdidi, who responded to the government’s propaganda and named the real problems in the country. Papuashvili, who in the previous days was practically unmoved listening to how the queers were called “sick”, urged Tsabunia to speak correctly when the activist compared the ruling team to a meme, where a person puts a stick under a bicycle to hurt himself.

“Propaganda as such does not exist at all when it comes to sex and gender. You cannot change your orientation with any propaganda, and if sex and gender are changed with propaganda, then you will all leave here as gays and lesbians, because I am an LGBT activist,” this is how she concluded her speech.

Hate Campaign on Social Networks

After the initiation of these changes, homophobia was not only nested in the broadcasts of the official media and in the halls of the regions – it also spread in social networks. A special target was the protest against the Russian law.

Attempts to discredit queer-themed events are not new to Georgian reality. It’s just that this time the pro-government trolls wanted to prove the necessity of adopting 2 laws within the framework of one campaign.

Using disinformation, photo and video manipulation, they tried to make it appear as if the Russian anti-law protesters are calling for the legalization of gay marriage. After the fake posts spread virally, they created the opinion that the law against “LGBT propaganda” is acceptable to prevent similar events and the “Transparency Law” is not bad either, because “such” people come out against it.

This trend was also noticed by independent fact-checkers. As MDF writes, the visual manipulations spread in order to discredit the anti-law protest are mostly homophobic in nature or contain signs of sly shaming. According to Myth Detector , the last fake poster with the inscription “Not Russian law, but same-sex marriage” was spread on Facebook by POSTV journalist Natia Beridze, the official publication Marshall Press, government supporters Gabi Kamaev, Edisher Gvenetadze and Nino Jgharkava. FactChek notes that this fake footage was spread on TikTok as well.

“Connecting the queer community to the protests is not new and mainly serves to discredit any protest wave. According to the spreaders of disinformation, this should, on the one hand, have a detaining effect on other people, so that they do not want to join this protest wave because of homophobic sentiments. On the other hand, they try to assess the appearance and involvement of the LGBT community in civil matters as bad, that is, they want to disappear from the civil space.

As for the fake posters at the current protests, this is an attempt to strenghten public fears, as if European integration requires the legalization of marriage, a change in legislation. This message has been circulating for years and now it has reached a certain peak”, – explains media researcher, Tina Gogoladze.

On one of the days of the rally, when Heroes Square was blocked, a photo of a couple kissing each other went viral on social networks. Uncertain reports said that the photo showed a gay couple kissing and that the protest was related to LGBTQ+ “propaganda”. Myth Detector and FactChek  investigated this fact and confirmed it to be false. They also released a shot of the same couple taken from a different perspective, where a female civil activist is seen.

We note here that the editorial of Aprili Media in this case refers to a disinformation campaign, which does not mean that the kiss of an LGBTQ+ couple is unacceptable. We strongly believe in equality and that everyone has the right to love, regardless of their identity. One of the main goals of our work as media is to realize this right.

Fact-checkers revealed 2 more cases when queer themes were used to discredit the campaign. For example, manipulation was spread, as if the LGBTQ+ flag was unfurled at the April 15 rally, but in fact the shot was taken at a silent rally on July 6, 2021, in Tbilisi. Also, the footage of the winner of Eurovision with a non-binary identity was transferred to the footage of the action, and they claimed that the demonstrators also want these “genderless” people in Georgia.

Our observation on social networks showed that pro-government pages, trolls and unidentified accounts about queer people shared various fake or manipulative stories, the goal of which in some cases was to demonize the West – as if it is a “perverted” and dangerous environment for children, and prohibiting “LGBT propaganda” to protect Georgian children is necessary. For example:

• Biden is accused of setting Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter, although Day of Visibility is celebrated every year on March 31, and Easter is a moving holiday, and this time it just happened to be on the same day.
• A cartoon that appears to be aimed at children and toddlers with “LGBT propaganda” is actually a 16+ Netflix animation.
• Despite the claims of pro-government trolls and the media, no children’s book about LGBT Jesus has been published in Spain, and in fact the book, “Little Jesus Doesn’t Hate Homosexuals”, is for adults.

“The law, which was called “against propaganda”, restricts the already limited rights in Georgia in various directions. And connecting these two issues, “propaganda” and the Russian law, serves to, on the one hand, convince the public that European values ​​are unacceptable for Georgian society; On the other hand, to add to the involvement of these people not a civil stance, but something more organized, hidden, with bad intentions,” explains Tina Gogoladze.

Along with the spread of misinformation, LGBTQ+ people were also the target of general discrediting. Pro-government and pro-Russian actors tried to portray any activity in a negative light just because the people participating in it in some way supported or represented the queer community.

Facebook pages and reports: “Georgian Conservative”, “Terenti Gldaneli”, “Politicians from 1 Lari” have been publishing anti-opposition posts and trying to demonize civil society for many years. At the same time, they support the ruling party and/or promote pro-Russian ideas. The frequency of their posts is especially active when the government is struggling due to political processes.

Among the spreaders were not only existing troll pages, but also pages specially created to discredit the Euro-Atlantic course: “Inside Europe” and “Home to Europe”. In addition, Amiran Giorgadze, a member of the Marneuli City Council, was also involved in the discrimination of activists. who shared several posts that referred to queer people and activists in a derogatory or offensive context.

Among them, in one of the photos called “protesters”, along with others, there is a shot of Aprili Media journalist Giorgi Baskhajauri, which was taken after he was physically abused by the special forces. When the fact of violence by law enforcers was covered in the media, his photo was spread on various troll pages in a similar derogatory context. At this point, these posts are no longer being searched, presumably due to reports.

Similar trends can be observed on TikTok, where by filtering comments and observing responses, we tried to find out which message boxes are used most intensively to discredit the participants of the action. It was homophobic and sexist terminology.

Attacks, swearing and threats on TikTok were mainly aimed at the participants of the rally, who do not have a “standard” style of dress, carry EU flags and play various games while at the rally. Also, to women who boldly state their own position.

The targets of the attack were mostly addressed with homophobic terms and pointed out that America and Europe were “making them gay “.

“Any hate speech that comes up strong is mostly related to current events and serves to shape or change the mood in society. When the political temperature increases, these flows are activated by various sources and, on the one hand, it allows to divert attention from the existing problem, and on the other hand, it raises illegitimate fears in the uninformed part of the society, as if after some processes, a specific result will be reached, which will be unacceptable to the traditional Georgian society, – explains Tina Gogoladze.

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Now we can go back to the beginning, where we discussed what propaganda is and answer the question whether the Georgian Dream election campaign is based on propaganda. It has a target audience — voters, it has a narrative — to make an enemy out of the queer community, it has a goal — to act as a savior and offer salvation to a demonized electorate. Therefore, yes, this is propaganda, not what Russia and then Georgian Dream called “propaganda”.

How dangerous or effective is such a campaign? Creators of this propaganda have financial and human resources, have distributors in the form of media and troll pages, and can manipulate public fears and mislead citizens.

However, in order for the hate campaign to succeed, it needs to be informed and analyzed. Now that we know what is and isn’t propaganda and how the government operates, it’s easy to draw conclusions.