Eastern partners

IT WAS as discreet a gay-pride rally as could be imagined: a few dozen activists (pictured) in a park in Tbilisi, marking the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) on May 17th. The organisers did not announce the location beforehand, and a cluster of anti-gay demonstrators rallying several blocks away apparently failed to notice it at all. On the same day, a conference promoted by the Georgian Orthodox church featured speakers decrying “totalitarian liberalism” and its alleged imposition of tolerance for “sexual perverts”.

But tellingly, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights demonstrators were protected by a cordon of police. In Georgia, as across the rest of eastern Europe, the rights of sexual minorities have become bound up with the geopolitical contest between the European Union and Russia. The Georgian government’s grudging protection of gay-rights activists is part of its years-long effort to align itself with the EU. As Georgia prepares for the EU’s Eastern Partnership summit in Riga on May 21st, that effort is struggling.