The Georgian Patriarchate and several religious denominations on Friday slammed Tbilisi Pride, a local NGO promoting the rights of sexual minorities, accusing the latter of “propaganda” rather than advocating the rights of the community, and called for legal regulations. 

"The so-called LGBT movement carries out far-reaching plans under the umbrella of protection of human rights, tolerance and acceptance. This can be observed in the examples of the countries where this movement started a few decades ago. Even years ago, we loudly declared that the real purpose of this movement was not to protect anyone's rights, but to promote a perverted lifestyle, including propaganda among teenagers, registering same-sex couples as families, adopting children, and generally changing the cultural code”, Andria Jagmaidze, the Patriarchate’s spokesperson said. 

He added “today everything is in the palm of your hand, and we can clearly see the attempts to start this propaganda among children. We have gathered here to declare once again: our society cannot accept this. This issue especially threatens civil peace and causes extreme polarization, so we consider it appropriate to regulate it by law”. 

Tbilisi Pride Week is underway in Tbilisi without any march, and is scheduled to be completed on Saturday.