LGBT-inclusive Georgia church closes after violent threats pinknews.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pinknews.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Egan Millard
Posted 9 hours ago
Anti-LGBTQ+ protesters burn a rainbow banner ahead of the planned March for Dignity during Pride Week in Tbilisi, Georgia, on July 5, 2021. Photo: Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters
[Episcopal News Service] Members of one of The Episcopal Church’s most isolated congregations – St. Nino’s Episcopal Mission in Tbilisi, Georgia – have found themselves on the front lines of the country’s violent conflict over LGBTQ+ rights, by virtue of the congregation’s status as one of only two LGBTQ+-affirming churches in the country.
On July 5, hundreds of far-right anti-LGBTQ+ extremists rioted in the streets of Tbilisi in advance of a planned Pride march later that day, according to Agence France-Presse. They ransacked the offices of Tbilisi Pride, destroying the rainbow flags that hung from its balconies, and assaulted more than 50 people, most of them journalists, Reuters reported, citing local police.