One of Georgia’s most prominent transgender women has been murdered in her home, a day after the country’s parliament passed a landmark anti-LGBT bill.
Local officials said Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was stabbed to death in her apartment in the capital Tbilisi on Wednesday.
A 26-year-old man has been arrested in the case that has shocked the small South Caucasus nation. Georgian media reported that he knew the victim.
Rights groups have linked the killing to new anti-LGBT laws, arguing that the government’s push for the law has led to an increase in hate crimes against transgender people.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who opposed the new law, said the “horrific murder” raised urgent questions about hate crimes and discrimination.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s government’s legislation severely restricts the rights of LGBT people.
The act bans same-sex marriage, gender reassignment surgery, adoption by heterosexual people, and the promotion of same-sex relationships in schools.
The bill passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday by a vote of 84-0, despite criticism from human rights groups.
The ruling party says the “Protection of Family Values and Minors” bill is designed to protect the majority of Georgians seeking protection from “LGBT propaganda”.
But local LGBT rights campaigners say the government has used homophobic and transphobic language and ideas to push the bill.
Some activists have directly linked what they see as harmful government rhetoric to Ms Abramidze’s murder.
As one of the country’s first openly transgender people, she has represented Georgia in international transgender beauty pageants and has more than 500,000 followers on social media.
“Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in politics have become central to the government’s official discourse and ideology,” said local rights group the Center for Social Justice.
“The murder of Kesaria Abramidze cannot be considered in isolation from this overall grave context,” the report added.
Progressive politicians outside the country also linked the killing to the government’s legislative agenda.
“Those who sow hatred will reap violence. Kesaria Abramidze was killed just one day after the Georgian parliament passed an anti-LGBTI law,” wrote German lawmaker Michael Roth, chairman of the country’s Social Democratic foreign affairs committee.
European Union officials condemned the law when it was passed earlier this week, saying it further jeopardized the country’s stated goal of joining the EU.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said the law “derails the country from its path to EU membership”. He called on the Georgian government to withdraw the law.
He added that the law undermines “people’s fundamental rights” and increases discrimination and stigma.
The British Embassy also expressed “grave concerns”.
Human rights groups have described Georgia’s laws as similar to those in Russia, severely restricting the rights of LGBT people.
The Washington-based think tank Freedom House said the bill was “a direct rip-off of the Kremlin’s authoritarian policies.”
