In a move echoing Russia’s restrictive legislation, the speaker of Georgia’s parliament signed into law a bill that severely limits the rights of LGBTQ individuals, igniting backlash from both human rights advocates and the European Union. This decision came just a day after pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili, in a standoff with the ruling Georgian Dream party, refused to endorse the bill. The newly passed law, titled “On Family Values and the Protection of Minors,” parallels Moscow’s notorious “gay propaganda” law by prohibiting gender reassignment and nullifying same-sex marriages performed abroad or within Georgia.