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Ultra-Religious Protesters Arrested at Gay Film Premiere in Georgia

One demonstrator reportedly set fire to a rainbow flag.

Above: A Georgian Orthodox priest attempts to breach a police barricade.

Police in Georgia arrested more than 25 people after violent protests erupted at the premiere of a gay film in Tbilisi this weekend.

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in the street on Friday, November 8, near the country's first screening of And Then We Danced, a Swedish-Georgian film about two gay Georgian ballet dancers who fall in love, Reuters reports. The movie, written and directed by out filmmaker Levan Akin, debuted at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year to great acclaim. It's also been touted as Georgia's first-ever explicitly gay film.

The protesters in question were homophobic ultra-nationalists who blocked the street outside the theater in Georgia's capital city in an attempt to derail the premiere. The crowd started chanting phrases like "Long live Georgia” and “Shame," and some demonstrators held crosses and religious paraphernalia. Others even set fire to a rainbow flag outside the venue.

Two police officers and a woman hoping to attend the screening were injured.

On social media, Akin praised LGBTQ moviegoers who fought through the throngs of angry nationalists to see his film.

He wrote that he felt "so much pride that none of the theaters backed down or cancelled any of the scheduled and sold out screenings," instead standing in solidarity with it.

This isn't the first time Georgian nationalists took to the streets in outrage over an LGBTQ event or cultural moment. The Eastern European nation is majority-Christian, and the Georgian Orthodox Church—an ultra-conservative, centuries-old denomination of Christianity with millions of members worldwide—remains vehemently anti-gay.

VANO SHLAMOV/AFP via Getty Images

Georgian police officers stand guard in front of the Amirani cinema as far-right activists protest against the premiere screening of an Oscar-nominated Swedish-Georgian gay film in Tbilisi on November 8, 2019. (Photo by Vano SHLAMOV / AFP) (Photo by VANO SHLAMOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Georgian police gather outside the movie theater.

Back in 2017, police arrested eight angry anti-gay protesters outside of the Georgian Football Federation's headquarters in Tbilisi, who'd gathered to denounce Georgian pro footballer Guram Kashia for wearing a rainbow armband in support of LGBTQ equality on the soccer field.

As NewNowNext reported last May, the leaders of the Georgian Orthodox Church rebuffed the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) by holding a mass wedding of 400 heterosexual couples.

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