Hundreds of gay rights opponents have invaded the grounds of an LGBT festival in the country’s capital of Georgia, vandalizing the stage, setting fire to and looting the event’s bar.
TBILISI, Georgia – Hundreds of gay rights opponents invaded the site of an LGBT festival in the country’s capital of Georgia on Saturday, vandalizing the stage, setting fire and looting the event’s bar.
Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze said that the participants in the Tbilisi Pride Fest were safely evacuated from the venue. Festival organizers asked people not to come to the lakeside park where the event would take place.
Georgian media estimated that some 5,000 people marched on the site. Many of them waved Georgian flags and carried religious icons.
Animosity towards sexual minorities is strong in Georgia, which is predominantly Orthodox Christian, and some previous LGBT events have suffered violent disruptions.
Darakhvelidze said that the police tried to obstruct the protesters, but were unable to stop all of them.
But the event organizers criticized the police as ineffective, saying in a statement: “The police did not block the access road to the festival site to prevent an aggressive group. The police did not use proportional force against the attackers.”
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