Transgender social media star stabbed to death in a 'premeditated' attack the day after anti-LGBTQ law passed

Actress, influencer and model Kesaria Abramidze was killed in a knife attack on Wednesday (September 18), the day after the government passed legislation that will impose restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights in her home country.

Abramidze, aged 37, was the first person in Georgia, a country at the intersection of Europe and Asia, to publicly come out as transgender. She represented the country at the Miss Trans Star International contest in 2018 and had more than 500,000 followers on Instagram.

The interior ministry said she suffered “multiple stab wounds” and that it was investigating a “premeditated murder committed with particular cruelty and aggravating circumstances on gender grounds”, according to local media.

She is said to have murdered in her apartment in suburban Tbilisi. Police have arrested a suspect, but he has not been named. The motive for her death remains unclear, but a local organisation has called her a “victim of gender-based violence”.

Abramidze herself had previously criticised the government’s approach to domestic violence and women’s rights. In April she said she temporarily had to flee abroad because she feared for her life after being attacked.

The Caucasus nation’s ruling Georgian Dream party has passed a “family values” bill that has been compared to Russia’s “gay propaganda” law and criticised by the European Union and rights groups as stigmatising LGBTQ people, as reported by local media. Abramidze was killed the day after the bill passed its third and final reading, the interior ministry said on Thursday (September 19).

The murder has shocked parts of the country, which has been rocked by major protests and political tensions for months. Last year, hundreds of opponents of gay rights stormed an LGBTQ+ festival in Tbilisi, forcing the event to be cancelled. This year, tens of thousands of people marched in the capital to promote “traditional family values” at an event attended by the ruling party.

President Salome Zurabishvili, who is at loggerheads with the government, condemned the “horrific murder” in a Facebook post, saying “the tragedy must awaken Georgian society.” Georgia’s own rights ombudsman said in 2022 that “LGBT+ people face persistent discrimination and violence in all spheres of life.”

The latest measures, which are yet to be signed into law, “concern restricting, in educational institutions and TV broadcasts, the propaganda of same-sex relationships”. They also ban gender transition, adoptions by gay and transgender people, and nullifies same-sex marriages performed abroad.

Brussels has said the bill “undermines fundamental rights of Georgians and risks further stigmatisation and discrimination of part of the population.”

Equality Movement, the largest queer organisation in Georgia, posted a tribute to Abramidze online. They wrote: “Equality Movement mourns the tragic murder of Kesaria Abramidze, a victim of gender-based violence. . . We must end intolerance and protect the lives of our community.”

Many tributes have also been left to Abramidze from her fans. One said: “You never deserved this, may you rest in peace.” A second person said: “Sorry for this brutal world . . . may your soul be at peace from now on. we will continue to fight for your freedom. We love you.”

One person who appeared to know her personally wrote: “I love you sister, you used to call me like that, you are a hero! Now rest sweet in heaven you deserve it.” Another person said: “Rest in peace queen”.