The Purpose of the Law and the Protected Grounds
The rights of LGBTQ+ persons in Georgia are protected on the same anti-discrimination foundation that applies to everyone. Article 1 of the Law of Georgia on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination names sexual orientation directly among the grounds by reference to which every natural and legal person has the right to enjoy equally the rights established by the legislation. The purpose of the law is the elimination of all forms of discrimination — the list of protected grounds includes race, language, sex, age, religion, ethnic affiliation, disability and others, with sexual orientation among them, and the list closes with the words "or other ground", which means that protection is not exhausted by the enumerated cases.
The practical significance of this norm is this: unequal treatment because of sexual orientation is a violation of the law in Georgia — at work, in education, in services or in any other sphere. The law connects this violation to concrete legal consequences and protection mechanisms, which this page examines.
The Forms of Discrimination
Under Article 2, any kind of discrimination is prohibited in Georgia. Direct discrimination is such treatment or the creation of conditions that places a person, because of a protected ground, in a less favourable position compared with other persons in analogous conditions. Indirect discrimination is a situation where a provision, criterion or practice that is neutral in form but discriminatory in substance leads to the same result — for example, a rule that formally applies to everyone but in fact places LGBTQ+ persons in an unequal position.
The law separately defines harassment — persecution, coercion or unwanted conduct towards a person which aims at or causes the violation of dignity and the creation of an intimidating, hostile or degrading environment — and sexual harassment. Discrimination on multiple grounds is prohibited, as is the coercion of a person or the giving of an instruction to discriminate against a third person. An important detail: discrimination exists regardless of whether the person actually has the ground for which the discriminatory act was committed against them — protection also covers a perceived ground.
The Scope of the Law
Under Article 3, the requirements of the law extend to the actions of public institutions, organizations, natural and legal persons in all spheres. This means that protection covers the actions of state bodies — a school, a university, an agency — and equally those of a private employer, a shop, a clinic or any other service provider. Article 2 extends the principle of equal treatment directly to labor and pre-contractual relations — from selection through remuneration to the termination of the relationship — as well as to education, health care, social protection and publicly available goods and services.