Murder of transgender influencer shocks Georgia

A famous Georgian transgender woman was stabbed to death in her apartment on Wednesday (19 September), authorities said, in a "premeditated" attack amid criticism of a government crackdown on LGBTQ rights.

The Caucasus nation's ruling Georgian Dream party has advanced a "family values" bill that has been compared to Russia's "gay propaganda" law and criticised by the European Union and rights groups as stigmatising LGBTQ people.

Actress, influencer and model Kesaria Abramidze was killed in a knife attack on Wednesday -- the day after the bill passed its third and final reading -- the interior ministry said Thursday.

Abramidze, 37, was the first person in Georgia to publicly come out as transgender. She represented the country at the Miss Trans Star International contest in 2018 and had more than 500,000 followers on Instagram.

The interior ministry said she suffered "multiple stab wounds" and that it was investigating a "premeditated murder committed with particular cruelty and aggravating circumstances on gender grounds."

Police have arrested a suspect, identified by Georgian media as Abramidze's boyfriend.

The murder has shocked parts of the EU candidate country, which has been rocked by major protests and political tensions for months.

Critics, including the EU, have accused Georgian Dream of pushing an anti-Western, anti-liberal agenda ahead of crucial elections next month.

Pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili -- at loggerheads with the government -- condemned the "horrific murder" in a Facebook post, saying "the tragedy must awaken Georgian society."

Abramidze herself had previously criticised the government's approach to domestic violence and women's rights.

In April she said she was forced to temporarily flee abroad, fearing for her life after attacks from a former partner.

"No to the femicide that has become so frequent in our country!" she said.

Georgia's own rights ombudsman said in 2022 that "LGBT+ people face persistent discrimination and violence in all spheres of life."

The latest measures, which need to be signed into law by Zurabishvili or the parliament's speaker, "concern restricting, in educational institutions and TV broadcasts, the propaganda of same-sex relationships and incest."

Rights groups have criticised the wording for putting homosexual relations on a par with incest.

It also bans gender transition, adoptions by gay and transgender people, and nullifies same-sex marriages performed abroad.

Brussels has said the bill "undermines fundamental rights of Georgians and risks further stigmatisation and discrimination of part of the population."