Gay rights activists holding the rally were met by thousands of protestors opposing homosexuality, who broke through a police cordon and violently pursued them, beating and throwing stones at them.

[4] Two days earlier, Ilia II of Georgia, the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, had called for banning the gay rights rally, describing homosexuality as an "anomaly and disease.

"[5] The day before the rally, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili stated that LGBTQ individuals "have the same rights as any other social groups" in Georgia.

[citation needed] Police forces did not prevent the homophobic protesters from running at the anti-homophobia rally participants,[7] as priests asked.

[9] The violence was widely condemned by foreign embassies,[10][11] and non-governmental organisations including Transparency Georgia, the Georgian Young Lawyers' Organization[12] and Amnesty International.