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One of Georgia’s most well-known transgender women has been killed in her home, a day after the country’s parliament passed a major anti-LGBT bill.<\/p>\n
Local officials say Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was stabbed to death in her flat in the capital, Tbilisi, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The interior ministry said it was investigating a “premeditated murder committed with particular cruelty and aggravating circumstances on gender grounds”.<\/p>\n
A 26-year-old man has been arrested in the case that has shocked the small South Caucasian nation. Georgian media reported he was known to the victim.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Rights groups have linked the killing to the new anti-LGBT law, arguing the government’s promotion of it had fuelled transphobic hate crime.<\/p>\n
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who opposed the new law, said the “horrendous murder” raised urgent questions about hate crimes and discrimination.<\/p>\n
The legislation from Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s government severely restricts rights for LGBT people. <\/p>\n
It introduces a ban on same-sex marriage, gender-affirming surgeries, child adoption by non-heterosexuals and the promotion of same-sex relationships in schools.<\/p>\n
The bill sailed through parliament on Tuesday in an 84-0 vote, despite criticism from rights groups.<\/p>\n
The ruling party said the “Protection of Family Values and Minors” bill was designed to protect a majority of Georgians seeking protection from “LGBT propaganda”.<\/p>\n
But local LGBT rights campaigners said the government had used homophobic and transphobic language and ideas in promoting the bill.<\/p>\n
Several activists directly linked what they said was the government’s harmful rhetoric to the killing of Ms Abramidze. <\/p>\n
One of the first openly trans public figures in the country, she had represented Georgia in international trans pageants and had more than 500,000 followers on social media.<\/p>\n
“Political homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia have become central to the government\u2019s official discourse and ideology,” said local human rights group the Social Justice Center.<\/p>\n
“Kesaria Abramidze’s killing cannot be viewed separately from this overall grave context,” it added.<\/p>\n
Progressive politicians outside the country have also linked the killing to the government’s legislative agenda.<\/p>\n
“Those who sow hatred will reap violence. Kesaria Abramidze was killed just one day after the Georgian parliament passed the anti-LGBTI law,\u201d wrote German lawmaker Michael Roth, the social democratic chair of the country’s foreign affairs committee.<\/p>\n
European Union figures had already condemned the legislation when it passed earlier this week, saying it further jeopardised the country’s stated aim of joining the EU.<\/p>\n
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said the law was “further derailing the country from its EU path”. He called on the Georgian government to withdraw the law.<\/p>\n
The legislation undermines the “fundamental rights of the people” and increases discrimination and stigmatisation, he added. <\/p>\n
The British embassy has also expressed “serious concerns”.<\/p>\n
Rights groups have characterised the Georgian legislation as being similar to Russian laws which severely restrict LGBT rights. <\/p>\n
The Washington-based think tank Freedom House said the bill was “pulled directly from the Kremlin’s authoritarian playbook”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n