The promotion of LGBT equality and non-discrimination is considered a cornerstone of the EU’s human rights policies, and this self-assumed 'LGBT-friendliness' also stands as a marker of the EU’s identity in the wider world. However, even in the most pro-EU countries, the EU’s LGBT equality promotion is highly contested. In the EU’s Eastern ‘neighbourhood’, this contestation is being further amplified by deliberate attempts by Russia to build a counter-hegemonic discourse on ‘Gayropa’ (Gay-Europe), which epitomizes its resistance to the EU/Western normative agenda. Scholars have critically analysed the EU’s and Russia’s competing normative / civilizational regionalisms and their impact in the so-called ‘common neighbourhood’; however, less attention has been paid to how the EU’s and Russia’s competing discourses on LGBT issues – as “geopolitical signifiers of difference” – resonate among societal groups in ‘neighbourhood’ countries. This paper examines the case of Georgia, a country which is an active demandeur of EU democratisation and human rights policies, but where issues of LGBT equality and non-discrimination still face harsh contestation and societal resistance, often fuelled by the Georgian Orthodox Church, conservative and Russia-oriented groups. Through the lens of liminality, this paper asks how Georgia’s geographical and geopolitical position “in-between” the EU/West and Russia/East shapes local developments in the field of LGBT activism and politics. Notably, the paper focuses on how the EU’s ‘LGBT-friendliness’ and Russia’s ‘Gayropa’ discourses are re-appropriated, negotiated and/or contested by Georgian ‘civil’ and ‘uncivil’ society groups. As an empirical illustration, the paper studies how these discursive struggles crystallized around the Tbilisi Pride event of May-June 2019. The paper is based on interviews with Georgian civil society representatives and EU officials, as well as on discourse analysis performed on relevant policy documents, statements, social media posts and news articles.
