Georgia’s President Blocks Proposed Referendum To Ban Same-Sex Marriage

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Georgia’s President Blocks Proposed Referendum To Ban Same-Sex Marriage

Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili has announced the country will not hold a referendum over whether to have a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

At a briefing on Tuesday, Margvelashvili said he did not support the proposed referendum because the Constitution already defines marriage. While Georgia’s Civil Code defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, if approved the referendum would have written the same language into the Constitution, effectively banning same-sex marriage.

#Georgia‘s President Giorgi Margvelashvili blocks referendum bid on ‘defining marriage’ t.co/XeKSZoZiwO… #tbilisi #gvote16

— George Tsereteli (@GTsereteli) August 11, 2016

With two hundred thousand signatures gathered in support of the referendum, the proposed question was: “Do you agree or disagree that marriage should be defined as a union of a man and a woman for the purpose of creating a family?”

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Those in support of the referendum have said they will hold rallies outside the president’s administration and take the matter to court. Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has announced plans to introduce a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage without a referendum if his Georgian Dream Party wins a sufficient majority in the October 8 election.

(Image via Twitter)

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