N°31 – The list

Tbilisi, 25th July
Anger is a very necessary instinct because it tells you what to do. This feeling has been boiling up inside me for years.

When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, I was a child, but I do remember the chaos during those five days and the aftermath of it. I remember the violence. I remember the feeling of being very scared and not having any sense of safety.

Then it was the 17th of May, 2013. A group of LGBTQI activists and allies had gathered together for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. In reaction, the Georgian Orthodox Church mobilised hateful and violent groups, who were instructed to protect the dignity of their country. In the name of this mission they attacked a van transporting 10 or 15 activists, with rocks and bottles.

I was 15 at the time and followed it live on television. I remember people around me in school justifying the violence. It became an additional brick to the anger that was building  inside me. 

This feeling grew so huge that it made me want to do something to contribute to building an environment where none of this would ever happen to anyone else.

In April 2024, our government reintroduced the Foreign Agent Bill, which forces civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations, including independent media, that receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign resources, which most of us do, to register as “representatives of foreign interests”. And this law doesn’t specify who, among those representatives of foreign interests, is your enemy and who is your ally.

It specifically targets us, CSOs and NGOs, that work with marginalised communities. They’ve been demonising us for years and calling us extremists, propagandists and traitors of the country.

Today, we do feel threatened, but we don’t feel scared. And we’re not going to act in the name of foreign agents because that’s not who we are. We’re not going to help them stigmatise us even further. I have learned that this is a very necessary step towards bringing down this regime. I see it as a very difficult period we have to go through before it gets better.

Ana

Ana is 27 and lives in Tbilisi, Georgia. She works as a development officer for GrlzWave, a queer-feminist organisation, for the Shame Movement, the largest civil society movement in Georgia, and for a queer organisation called Tbilisi Pride. All three organisations, as well as Ana and her colleagues personally, are at risk of being labelled “Foreign Agents”, since the Georgian government adopted a replication of a repressive Russian law.  She talks about her fight against this law.

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