Trans woman killed in Georgia day after anti-LGBT law passed
A prominent transgender woman in Georgia was killed in her home, just a day after the country’s parliament passed a significant anti-LGBT bill.
Local authorities reported that 37-year-old Kesaria Abramidze was fatally stabbed in her apartment in the capital, Tbilisi, on Wednesday.
A 26-year-old man, known to the victim, has been arrested, in a case that has deeply unsettled the small South Caucasian country. Rights groups have drawn connections between her death and the newly passed anti-LGBT legislation, claiming that the government’s endorsement of the law has incited transphobic violence.
President Salome Zurabishvili, who opposed the legislation, described the “horrific murder” as raising urgent concerns about hate crimes and discrimination.
The controversial law, introduced by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s administration, significantly curtails LGBT rights, including bans on same-sex marriage, gender-affirming surgeries, adoption by non-heterosexual individuals, and the promotion of same-sex relationships in schools.
The bill passed in parliament on Tuesday with an 84-0 vote, despite strong opposition from rights groups.
The ruling party claims the “Protection of Family Values and Minors” bill is aimed at shielding the majority of Georgians from “LGBT propaganda.” However, local LGBT activists argue that the government used homophobic and transphobic rhetoric to promote the bill, with several directly linking this harmful discourse to Abramidze’s killing.
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.
“Political homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia have become central to the government’s official discourse and ideology,” said local human rights group the Social Justice Center.
“Kesaria Abramidze’s killing cannot be viewed separately from this overall grave context,” it added.
