Once, when I was working at Bassiani — a popular nightclub in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi — we turned away a partygoer, who came back with a gun and opened fire at the entrance. Three people were hospitalized. It was a truly terrifying moment, but, it turns out, far from the only traumatic experience I had there.

Another, more recent example, was when I found out that I had been swept up in one of Georgia’s biggest political scandals in a decade. Earlier this month, a massive data leak revealed to the nation that state security services had been secretly monitoring the electronic communications of hundreds of journalists, politicians, diplomats, high-ranking members of the clergy — and me.

So, why did a 19-year-old woman, fresh out of university, working her first job at a nightclub, become a target of Georgia’s security services? 

The answers to that question point not just to what Bassiani is, but what it means to many young Georgians. For us — living in a former Soviet country, strongly influenced by the conservative ideologies espoused by older generations and the powerful Georgian Orthodox Church, where LGBTQ people face daily oppression — it was much more than just a club. It was a safe space, where everyone was equal.