Georgian Transgender Model Murdered the Day After Passage of LGBTQ+ Oppression Law

Murdered the Day After Ban on LGBTQ+ Promotion

The day after the Georgian parliament passed a bill suppressing LGBTQ+ rights, a well-known local transgender model woman was murdered.

Photo by Kesaria Avramize, Instagram capture

On the 19th (local time), foreign media such as the BBC and The Guardian focused on Ketsaria Abramize (37), a transgender woman who was stabbed to death at her home in the capital city of Tbilisi. Abramize is the most famous transgender woman in Georgia. Like Harisu, who is considered a transgender icon in Korea, she was the first in Georgia to publicly reveal her gender transition and actively work as a transgender woman.

Neighbors heard screams from Abramize’s apartment and reported it to the police, but when the police arrived, she was already dead. A 26-year-old man was identified as the murder suspect. CCTV footage showed him fleeing the building just 15 minutes after arriving at the apartment. He was known to have a friendly relationship with Abramize.

Human rights organizations pointed out that this incident occurred the day after the Georgian parliament passed the “Law on Family Values and Protection of Minors,” which bans LGBTQ+ propaganda, criticizing that “the government has incited hate crimes against sexual minorities.” The law, passed by the Georgian parliament on the 17th, prohibits the use of rainbow flags representing sexual minorities and provides legal grounds to censor films and books. Furthermore, it bans the registration of marriages other than between a man and a woman, adoption of minors by same-sex couples, and gender reassignment surgeries.

Some analysts believe that Georgia’s social democratic party, Georgian Dream, made this decision to rally its conservative Orthodox Christian base ahead of the general election scheduled for the 26th of next month. The West is also wary, noting recent moves by Georgia toward pro-Russian tendencies. Russia also defines LGBTQ+ rights movements as extremism and bans them.

Salome Zurabishvili, the Georgian president who opposed this law, stated, “The horrific murder raises urgent questions about hate crimes and discrimination.”