A dear longtime friend of mine, Eteri Chkadua sent me the news last week about how her home country Georgia is moving forward with bills that outlaw Pride events and Trans people. This should be a clarion call for everyone in the United States considering the Republican Christian Nationalist agenda and our compromised Supreme Court working with The Heritage Foundation. Read Project 2025 while you're at it. Then I read How Georgia is on the Front Line of the Struggle between Russia and the West in The Guardian and the billionaire hiding behind Georgia's ruling party.
Eteri, a renowned Georgian artist was gracious to accept my plea for an interview. She's been a vocal opponent of the crackdown on LQBTQ+ rights and a champion of human rights for decades. "In 2015 in collaboration with Identoba and Europe House to produce the exhibit Anonymous, 'Story of an Anonymous Gay' presented the invisible aspects of the lives of the LGBTQ+ community by sharing their stories. The exhibition brought up the issues of discrimination, invisibility, and the high levels of homophobia." After the exhibit, she had opportunities to defend the LGBTQ+ community and confront the views of straight people and priests on Georgian television and radio shows.
And she is back to defend human rights, once again!
1. What came to mind when you learned of the recent events in the parliament signing bills that would outlaw LQBTQ+ identity? Can you give us a brief history of when this began?
It was not a big surprise to me as I have been very disappointed with the current government ruled by the Georgian Dream Party since its arrival in 2012. The government has been established by the Made in Russia Georgian oligarch who is kissing the a#@ of the psychopath monster Putin by bringing these degenerative laws to Georgia. In the 1970s mostly well-known in the West and born in Georgia, the great filmmaker, Sergei Parajanov (The Color of Pomegranates, among other films) was arrested for five years in Kyiv, Ukraine for homosexuality. I had friends in the Academy of Arts in the 1980s who'd never admit they were gay because they were too scared of being brutally beaten by their macho neighbors and countrymen.
2. Who is currently in parliament and how did they become powerful?
A Georgian oligarch has put in parliament his own a#@-kissers who'd do anything he demands for money, they are mediocre people, treacherous to the Georgian people and the country's future. It's embarrassing to have such people governing my native country and elections are faked, of course.
3. What does the ruling party consider LGBTQ propaganda?
During the USSR it was believed that Europe and the West were Gay-if-ing men, otherwise, no one would be gay in Georgia or the USSR. So, the Kremlin and its Georgian a#@-kissing government just continued the Soviet propaganda.
4. What was the Rose Revolution in 2003? Were you in Georgia at that time?
Georgia enjoyed progress in human and LQBTQ rights following the Rose Revolution in 2003. The demonstrators, led by Michael Saakashvili stormed the parliament with roses in their hands, which resulted in the resignation of Eduard Shevardnadze, the president at that time. This event played a strong role as a majority of Georgian citizens supported a pro-western turn and integration into the European Union. The same year Mr. Saakashvili became president. Under his rule, the country was pulled out of the swamp, and anarchy ceased with the deconstruction of the Soviet Union. I was not living in Georgia at that time.
By the way, Mr. Saakashvili is in jail, imprisoned by the current government for no particular reason aside from being afraid his party will win elections.
5. Who does the Georgian government consider foreign agents?
The introduction of anti-LGBTQ legislation followed the Georgian deputy's passage of a Russian-inspired law against Western NGOs, which is aimed at expelling human rights and other groups that help older people and the education of children living in rural regions. The law is supported by the Orthodox Church by using the "Protection of Family Values and Minors" which is copied from Russia's anti-LGBTQ propaganda law passed last year. The bill is scheduled for a second and third reading in the fall.
6. There's a history of violent mobs aimed at shutting down Pride marches in Tbilisi, can you speak to that? How did the general public react?
The first time on May 17th, 2013 when very few activists walked peacefully in Tbilisi to defend LGBTQ rights, priests came out of churches and started beating them up with chairs and crosses. The police were not prepared to defend the demonstrators on this matter and the patriarch Ilia II called on the authorities to ban the LGBTQ rights event. Since then, it has continued discrimination of rights and gay pride events.
7. Do you feel most people in Georgia are allied with the LGBTQ community? Or are they sliding into the far-right influence?
I couldn't tell what percentage of the population, but like everywhere, educated Georgians are for sure siding with the rights of LGBTQ. They understand that the only way to be a part of Europe is to protect the rights of every human being and their sexual freedom. However, some of the population is clinging to its ancient traditions, to me, it's proof of a lack of education. Georgia's version of Putin's "LGBTQ propaganda" seems designed not only to roll back progress on LGBTQ+ rights but to kill any hope of Georgia entering the European Union which has strict requirements for upholding civil liberties and personal freedoms.
8. How do you see yourself getting involved when you return to Georgia? I know you're ready to fight for human rights. What do you suggest people here in the United States do to help Georgia and keep the far-right extremists from taking over? History has shown that when religious extremists take over (fascism) we all lose our human rights, no matter who we are.
I am an artist, so I often use my arts visual language as my weapon to influence people's minds. For years I've been an LGBTQ rights activist. When I arrived in Georgia I started making simple but sharp points in my radio interviews. My aim was to challenge the basic understanding of uneducated people. I spoke primitively: Why are Georgians so afraid of gays? It's not a virus, it won't jump on to you or your children and will not turn you or them gay. In my talks, I associated the facts of hardcore drug use and alcohol which up to now has taken the lives of so many young Georgians, a reason for their compulsive addictions, the possibility of being gay and unable to come out of the closet, using vast amounts of drugs and alcohol to block their natural sexual desires they were prohibited to admitting.
I was approached by the LGBTQ organization (supported by European NGOs and invited to their hidden office. During the meeting, I offered to stage an exhibition to open up a conversation about their discrimination and rights. I asked them to write to me about what happened the first time they shared that they were gay. I printed these heartbreaking stories in large letters on canvas and graphic designs in the background, making them look more like a piece of art, and hung them as paintings on the walls of the Europa House space located in the center of the Tbilisi capital.
As I imagined, these firsthand, straightforward narrations, used without the author's names (for their safety) had a huge effect on the viewers. They thought they were there to see an exhibition of my paintings, for which I am well-known, and they were unexpectantly stuck reading those texts, unable to avoid the large letters and the stories they never wanted to hear. The exhibition was reviewed on TV and radio, where I addressed and ridiculed the narrow-mindedness of priests and other citizens, so that I may bring a dialogue to defend the privacy and sexual freedom of any individual.
I always use the United States as an example of democracy and free speech, which will continue no matter what far-right extremists preach. The current US government is on the side of the Georgian people who are demonstrating non-stop in opposition to the Georgian government's installment of the so-called Russian Laws. Education is the main power for the development of human minds. As much as I understand some people's need for religion. I wish there was as much attention dedicated in the education systems to the fact that religions were invented by men many centuries ago, and at a time when there were no condoms or technologies for abortion available and I believe religions were useful and necessary for people to unite around common values. But religions are just too ancient to be useful in the modern day. I prefer to remind people about the atrocities, cruelties, and wars resulting between different religious believers just because of their choices in choosing different Gods--who are always depicted as men with long beards--because there were no razors to shave when they were invented.
9. Yes, to all of that yes. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Peace is in danger these days and if those long-bearded gods want to prove that I am wrong and they exist, let them stop the wars, religious fanatics, and far-right extremists everywhere in the world.
Thank you Eteri for participating in this important conversation we should all be having. Your courage and creative ingenuity are inspiring. The world must stand together to protect our brothers and sisters and stop the spread of war and discrimination.
We thank our Ukrainian friends for holding the line with the dictator. There's no art in a fascist state and no environmental protections, it's the ravage of our resources and human family until the last ember disintegrates.
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