Lawmakers in Georgia have approved in a third and final reading restrictive new laws curbing LGBT rights and allowing for bans on cultural events such as Pride marches in a vote boycotted by the opposition, underscoring a dramatically polarized political landscape ahead of national elections in October.
A group of protesters outside the parliament building in downtown Tbilisi on September 17 held signs decrying the draft legislation as ignoring the real problems of Georgian families.
SEE ALSO: Georgian Dream Plays Geopolitics To Shore Up Support At HomeThe package of legal changes, which came under the title On Family Values And Protection Of Minors, amends 18 current laws, including on free speech and expression, as well as broadcasting.
It allows for bans on gatherings that promote the notion of a person identifying as a gender other than "his or her biological sex" or same-sex orientation or relationships.
The initiative was brought forward by the ruling Georgian Dream party and passed by a vote of 84-0 in a chamber that most of the opposition has boycotted since May.
That's when Georgian Dream lawmakers approved a "foreign influence" bill that Georgians and Western governments liken to the decade-old "foreign agent" law used by Russian authorities to clamp down on dissent with broad discretion.
They ended up overriding a presidential veto of the legislation to enact it.
The United States and other Western states expressed concern about the law, which requires organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as "agents of foreign influence."
On September 16, the United States slapped sanctions on more than 60 Georgians, including two members of the government, who it said had "undermined" democracy and human rights in the country.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze met on September 17 with U.S. Ambassador Robin Dunnigan and warned that Georgia might revise ties with the United States in response to the new sanctions.
"If one more such step is taken, this might lead to a revision of Georgia's stance on U.S.-Georgian relations," Kobakhidze said in the meeting with Dunnigan, according to a statement by the prime minister's office.
SEE ALSO: Georgia's Ruling Party Initiates Bill Cracking Down On LGBT RightsTens of thousands of Georgians demonstrated against the bill despite a brutal crackdown and violent retaliation. Most protesters referred to the bill as "the Russian law" because of its similarity to decade-old legislation in Russia that has contributed to a fierce clampdown on independent media and public dissent there.
The European Union reacted to the enactment of the bill by pausing EU accession negotiations, while the United States opted to launch a "comprehensive review" of relations with Georgia.
In setting election day for October 26, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili called the vote a choice between "being Russia's slave or cooperation with Europe."
Opinion polls show that Georgian Dream remains the country's single most popular party ahead of the election.