irakli_gharibashvili

Irakli Garibashvili

Tbilisi, DFWatch – Georgia’s PM will do his best to fix definition of a marriage as ‘union of a man and a woman.’

In a lengthy interview published on Monday by a popular Georgian ultra-conservative newspaper Asaval-Dasavali, Irakli Garibashvili, PM, says that the state firmly stands on religion and family values (“family institute” as he put it).

“What the Georgian state is based on?” Garibashvili asks rhetorically. “On our religion, which has ensured our survival and also on the institute of family…”

“As a Prime Minister and a citizen, I will do everything to include a text in the constitution that defines  marriage and the family as the union of a man and a woman!” Garibashvili said and, in a clear reference to the US Supreme Court recent decision to legalize gay marriages nationwide, added: “Today, every state in the world decides by itself how to handle this issue, and we believe that this should be solved in this way in Georgia.”

This is not a first time Garibashvili speaks about introducing constitutional block against same-sex marriages.

“Though according to the current legislation, a family is understood as a union between a man and a woman, I think it should be written in the Constitution too, to avoid wrong interpretations,” Gharibashvili said at a government session back in March, 2014. 

That statement was met by rought criticism from opponents and the civil society.

Earlier, on Sunday, the deputy speaker of the parliament, Manana Kobakhidze, on her Facebook criticized the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

The same day the head of the Georgian Church, Catholikos Patriarch Ilia II, in his Sunday sermon called the ruling “a huge mistake.”