Georgia’s president refuses to sign an anti-LGBTQ bill and returns it to parliament

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgia’s president has refused to sign into law a bill that severely curtails LGBTQ+ rights in the country and mirrors legislation adopted in neighboring Russia. Salome Zourabichvili returned the bill, introduced by the ruling party Georgian Dream and approved by lawmakers last month, to the parliament. The parliament speaker now has five days to sign it into law. The bill includes bans on same-sex marriages, adoptions by same-sex couples and public endorsement and depictions of LGBTQ+ relations and people in the media. It also bans gender-affirming care and changing gender designations in official documents.