Tbilisi Pride Conference: “Equality in Public Spaces”

Today, a conference entitled “Equality in Public Spaces” was held as part of the events of the Tbilisi Pride. It gathered around a hundred people in a peaceful atmosphere. Three panel discussions as well as two workshops informed people and raised awareness about the rights and challenges faced by LGBT+ people in Georgia and other countries.

The guest speakers all thanked the organizers of the Pride for their courage and work in organizing such an event in Georgia. They talked about the importance of organizing a Pride and a march for the LGBT+ community to get visibility and drive change. They also stressed that in many countries of western Europe, Prides have first been riots before becoming peaceful or joyful demonstrations.

The challenges faced by the transgender people in Georgia, Ukraine and Armenia were also discussed. In these countries, people have very few support or resources to be able to make their transition and they face particularly violent discrimination.

A panel was also held to give information on how to deal with violent and extreme groups.

The conference gathered diverse people from the LGBT+ community, activists and people from different backgrounds who all talked about the challenges shared by all the LGBT+ people as well as the ones specific to Caucasian countries. It was a great source of information and the panels were organized in such a way to enable people to ask questions and discuss the different subjects in a respectful and critical way.

By Gabrielle Colchen

Photo by: Tbilisi Pride Facebook page