The European Union's top diplomat has called on Georgia to scrap legislation approved by lawmakers that curbs LGBT rights and allows for bans on cultural events such as Pride marches.
The so-called Family Values bill was pushed through parliament by the ruling Georgian Dream party on September 17. Opposition members boycotted the vote and protesters rallied against it outside parliament, underscoring the dramatically polarized political landscape in the Caucasus nation ahead of national elections in October.
"The Georgian Parliament adopted laws on 'family values and protection of minors’ which will undermine the fundamental rights of the people and increase discrimination & stigmatization,"Josep Borrell, the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs, wrote in a post on X on September 18.
"I call on Georgia to withdraw this legislation, further derailing the country from its EU path."
The 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.
SEE ALSO: Bulgarian Teachers Say They Face Threats For Opposing Anti-LGBT 'Propaganda In School' LawIt 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 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 have 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.