What 2024 told us about queer representation in Caucasus?

What do a murdered trans actress, a rainbow-coloured apple in a textbook, and smear campaigns against an Olympic boxer have in common?

In 2024, they were all headlines, and they tell a very real story about how queer lives are used and abused in media across the South Caucasus.

Now in its 6th year, QueeRadar tracked over 1141 media pieces across Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, uncovering how LGBTIQ+ people were spoken about or more often, spoken over in mainstream media.

Why do we monitor media?

Mainstream media is one of the most powerful forces shaping public opinion. It determines who gets sympathy and who gets suspicion. Who is heard and who is harmed.

Across the South Caucasus, queer visibility is fragile and often manipulated. While hate crimes rise, elections loom, and new laws target queer existence, the media frequently serves not as a watchdog but as an echo chamber for anti-queer sentiment.

What did we find this year?

In Azerbaijan, where LGBTIQ+ existence is largely invisible, 85% of queer-related media coverage focused on foreign stories rather than local lives. Queerness was often portrayed as an imported Western agenda, used to delegitimise political opponents or justify state crackdowns. Of the 691 news stories analysed, only seven articles (just over 1%) framed queer issues as part of a human rights conversation.

In Armenia, while media freedom continues to improve, LGBTIQ+ topics remained marginal and were often presented in polarising terms. Coverage tended to be reactive, driven more by regional developments than by local reporting or community voices. Notably, trans people had increased visibility in Armenian media this year, but their representation was rarely framed with care or nuance – most coverage leaned heavily on sensationalism. We also observed the continued influence of Russian-language media narratives, which still shape the tone and framing in many outlets.

Before turning to Georgia itself, it’s important to note just how far its impact reached. Developments there didn’t stay within national borders: they echoed across Azerbaijani and Armenian media, shaping coverage, reactions, and political discourse. What happens next door is no longer just a neighbour’s concern; it reverberates across the region.

And in Georgia, 2024 marked a sharp regression in LGBTIQ+ rights. A repressive “Family Values” law banned everything from Pride flags to queer characters in media. Pro-government outlets widely repeated queerphobic slogans like “A woman is a woman, a man is a man” without any critical context. Even the murder of trans model Kesaria Abramidze was stripped of political framing by many local outlets.

Why does it matter?

Media doesn’t just reflect society, it builds it. When journalists echo state propaganda or ignore queer voices, they shape a public that becomes more fearful, more misinformed, and more hostile.

Media doesn’t just tell stories, it decides whose stories are told at all. In a region where LGBTIQ+ people face deep stigma and rising violence, the way media frames queerness can mean the difference between safety and danger.

What you’ll find inside the report:

• Country-by-country breakdowns on bias, inclusive coverage, and media freedom;
• Visual data on language usage, tone, and frequency;
• Case studies of harmful reporting;
• A deep dive into headline framing, censorship, and media’s role in political repression;

We don’t publish this report to let it sit on a shelf.
Read it. Share it. Use it. Hold your media accountable.

Download the full 2025 QueeRadar Annual Report here.