On May 17, the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorated the Day of Family Purity and Respect for Parents with marches and religious gatherings across the country, including a major procession in the capital, Tbilisi.
The observance began at Kashveti Church on Rustaveli Avenue, and continued in a procession to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, one of the city’s most prominent religious sites. Senior government officials from the ruling Georgian Dream party, including GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, GD Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili and GD Mayor of Tbilisi Kakhi Kaladze, took part in the event, emphasizing high-level government endorsement of the Church-led initiative.
The GD reportedly organized a significant mobilization, gathering teachers and other public servants to participate in the processions.
The rhetoric of the GD officials and clergy stressed the ongoing global struggle “against traditional values” and the need to defend Georgian traditional values in face of push of foreign malign influence.
Speaking to reporters during the procession, Prime Minister Kobakhidze reiterated his government’s alignment with the Church on what he called a “struggle for traditional values.”
“The fight for traditional values continues. This struggle is not easy. There are powerful forces opposing these values, creating false ideologies and narratives,” Kobakhidze said. “It is our duty and responsibility to stand alongside the Mother Church in defending our national values.”
GD Parliament Speaker, also attending the event, described the day as a response to what he called foreign ideological impositions.
“This is a reflection and a response from the Georgian people against that artificial ideology which is being pushed not only on Georgia, but on different parts of the world,” Papuashvili said.
In a sermon delivered at Kashveti Church, Metropolitan Shio – the Patriarch’s locum tenens – praised the government’s legislative actions, targeting the LGBT persons, specifically referencing a controversial legal package introduced in 2024.
“It is very important that our government has taken strong, effective, and bold steps in defense of traditional values,” Bishop Shio said. “I am referring to the law passed last year against the propaganda of sodomy, and the removal of the concept of gender identity from Georgian legislation.”
On September 17, 2024 the GD Parliament adopted the anti-LGBTQ+ legislative package. The package consists of a core bill “On Protection of Family Values and Minors” and 18 related amendments to various laws of Georgia.
Metropolitan Shio also warned of broader ideological push, claiming that external forces oppose not only the Church but also the family unit and national sovereignty.
“These forces fight not just the Church and religious families, but the very concept of the traditional family and the sovereignty of the state,” he said. “Many, including Aristotle, wrote that the family is the foundation of the state. That is why we must stand firmly against these technologies and theories, and do all we can to prevent and eradicate their influence in our country.”
He spoke of the demographic challenge and took aim at abortion saying that this is “the greatest sin.” He urged to take measures towards the prohibition of abortions citing the experience in the U.S. and the EU: “We must think about everything about how to stop all this in our country… In this regard, there is very good experience in many advanced countries, in the U.S., in the countries of the European Union, where such work is being carried out very actively and legislative norms have been adopted that more or less restrict abortion…
The Family Purity day marchers have reportedly entered into a verbal confrontation with the protesters who have been standing by the Parliament building for weeks in support of the illegally detained individuals. The police had to be mobilized to divide the two groups and prevent a scuffle.
The Church established the Day of Family Purity in 2014, one year after a violent attack on LGBT rights demonstrators occurred in Tbilisi on May 17, 2013. That year, LGBT groups had gathered to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT), but were met with physical attack by counter-protesters, including Orthodox clergy. In response, Patriarch Ilia II declared May 17 a day to celebrate what he called traditional family values.
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