Georgia LGBTI activists have had to cancel IDAHOBIT celebrations, citing security concerns. The decision has come after far-right groups organized large homophobic rallies on 12 and 13 May. They threatened to assault or kill anyone who came out to support LGBTI people.

Despite the cancellation, some activists have vowed they will still go to the Government’s Chancellery Building today and protest. Giorgi Tabagari, from the Equality Movement, has said there are up to 10 friends who plan to attend the ‘self-organized demonstration’.

‘Considering the real threats, we, the LGBT activists, made a very hard, mutual decision to give up our constitutional right to self-expression at this time and cancel the peaceful demonstration which was supposed to take place on 17 May at the Chancellery of the Georgian Government, in order not to support interested forces in making any disorder’, the statement from the Equality Movement said.

According to the Interior Ministry, police were ready to guarantee ‘maximum protection for demonstration participants’. Read more via Gay Star News