Transgender woman threatened self-injection to tbilisi mayor's office

On March 30, a transgender woman set herself on fire in front of Tbilisi City Hall during a protest against the government’s “negligence” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The incident occurred as several transgender women gathered in front of Tbilisi City Hall to protest the government’s lack of support during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

During a small rally in front of the city hall on Thursday evening, one of the transgender protesters, Madonna Kiparodze, set herself on fire. Police managed to remove the flaming vest from her before arresting her.

Kiparodze, who was interacting with other protesters after the incident and did not appear to have sustained any life-threatening injuries, was later taken to hospital by ambulance.

“I am a transgender woman, and I am setting myself on fire because the Georgian government does not care about me,” – Kiparodze shouted after being arrested.

“We can’t even pay our apartment rent. What can we do?”, another protester told Pirveli TV after the incident.

“Iravunki Kokhm” human rights NGO expresses its support for the protesting trans women in solidarity with our Georgian sisters and brothers, as well as strongly condemns the inaction and lack of support shown by the Georgian government towards trans people.

We also call on the Government of the Republic of Armenia to heed the above-mentioned calls and pay attention to all those vulnerable groups who need support in this difficult situation and are facing many insoluble problems, as we presented in one of our previous articles.

We also inform you that we are conducting a survey to find out how many representatives of the transgender community are beneficiaries of state support programs, and what social impact the restrictions created due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had on the transgender community.

You can participate in the survey by following this link:

photo: eadaily.com