Transgender actress and influencer is stabbed to death in Georgia a day after an anti-LGBT law is passed

Thursday, September 19, 2024 - A popular transgender model and influencer has been stabbed to death in Georgia.

According to Mail Online, Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was killed the day after parliament in the ex-Soviet state had passed a law banning LGBT propaganda, with her death sparking widespread outrage.

It was gathered that she suffered more than 50 stab wounds in the attack, which took place last night in her own home in the capital Tbilisi.

A male suspect, named as Beka Jaiani, 26, was detained at the city's airport evidently seeking to leave Georgia, according to reports. He is said to have known the star.

CCTV footage allegedly shows him waiting by a lift in her apartment block, and then running down the stairs in the same building less than ten minutes later.

The victim was a well-known and popular figure in Georgia after undergoing a sex change operation in 2014.

She had represented Georgia at Miss Trans Star International in 2018 and had more than half a million online followers.

Georgia's President Salome Zurabishvili, who is against the new anti-LGBT laws, responded to news of Kesaria's death: 'A terrible murder! A denial of humanity!

'Only this might sober up our society… Hopefully, the killing of this beautiful young woman will at least serve to make us more humane and Christian.'

Her killing is the third high-profile murder of a transgender woman in Georgia in recent years.

The killing came after the country passed laws in lockstep with Russia banning same-sex marriages, adoption by same-sex couples, gender-affirming care, public endorsement of LGBTQ+ relations and people, and depictions of them in the media.