Greece was expected to legalize same-sex marriage and equal parenting rights for same-sex couples on Thursday, as lawmakers considered a bill that has divided Greek society and drawn fierce opposition from the country’s powerful Orthodox Church.
Although Greece would be the 16th country in the European Union to allow same-sex marriage, it would be the first Orthodox Christian nation to pass such a law. The country extended civil partnerships to same-sex couples in 2015, but did not extend equal parental rights at the time.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had pledged to pass the new measures after his landslide re-election last year. He told his cabinet last month that same-sex marriage was an equal rights issue, noted that similar legislation was in place in more than 30 other countries and said there should be no “second-class citizens” or “children of a lesser God”.
In addition to recognizing same-sex marriages, the legislation paves the way for adoption and gives both same-sex parents the same rights as the child’s legal guardian, whereas until now such rights only apply to the biological parent. It will also affect the daily lives of same-sex couples, Mr Mitsotakis told Parliament on Thursday, allowing those with children “to pick them up from school, to be able to travel with them, to take them to the doctor”.
The bill does not give same-sex couples access to assisted reproduction or the option of surrogacy. It also does not grant rights to transgender people as parents.
Human rights defenders have welcomed the prospect of same-sex marriage for Greece. Maria Gavouneli, the president of the Hellenic National Commission for Human Rights, an independent public body, called the measure “long overdue”. And Stella Belia, the founder of Rainbow Families, an organization that supports same-sex families, called the legislation “a great victory that we’ve been fighting for for years.”
Among the first to benefit from the new law will be Leo Emmanuilidou, a 43-year-old teacher, who plans to marry her longtime partner in Thessaloniki on March 8, which is International Women’s Day. She said she was excited about the marriage and hailed the bill as “a step in the right direction and a big win for the community.”
She complained, however, that even with her approval, her partner would still face a “long and expensive” adoption process — costing about 3,500 euros or $3,750 — to become the legal guardian of Ms. Emmanuelidou’s 6-year-old son, whose partners have grown up together as a family. (Under the new bill, both members of a married same-sex couple would automatically be legally recognized as the parents of children born or adopted by the couple.)
Ms Emmanuilidou also said she was distressed by the opposition to the measures. But she said that, in her experience, most Greeks were accepting of same-sex couples, and that her school and community treated her family like any other.
“Society is much more ready for this than we think,” he said.
However, in a country that remains one of Europe’s most socially conservative, where the traditional family model still dominates and the influential Orthodox Church views homosexuality as deviant, the measures met with strong resistance.
The Holy Synod, the highest authority of the Greek Orthodox Church, argued in a letter to lawmakers this month that the bill “abolishes fatherhood and motherhood, neutralizes the sexes” and creates an environment of confusion for children. Clergy echoed that sentiment in sermons across the country in recent weeks, and some bishops said they would refuse to baptize the children of same-sex couples.
Church groups also joined forces with far-right parties to hold rallies in Athens and other cities to oppose the changes. Last Sunday, hundreds of people demonstrated outside Parliament, with some holding placards reading: “There is only one family, the traditional one.”
Polls conducted in recent weeks have depicted a divided Greek society on the issues: In most of the surveys, half of respondents expressed support for same-sex marriage, but most respondents also said they opposed allowing same-sex couples to adopt children .
The bill also sparked controversy across the Greek political spectrum.
In the ruling New Democracy party, dozens of lawmakers, including a prominent minister and a former prime minister, argued that the legislation weakened the nuclear family and undermined traditional values. The leader of the Communist Party of Greece, Dimitris Koutsoubas, told parliament on Thursday that legalizing same-sex marriage would “abolish the unity of motherhood and fatherhood”.
And the issue has divided SYRIZA, the main opposition party: Some lawmakers said the bill did not go far enough, others did not want to support a conservative government’s bill on what they saw as a liberal issue, and some worried about winning support in rural areas. .
Syriza even drafted its own alternative bill, but party leader Stefanos Kaselakis — who is the first openly gay party leader in Greece and has expressed a desire to adopt children through surrogacy with his partner, whom he married in New York last October — later pressed fellow lawmakers to support the administration’s legislation.
Supporters said the changes were a crucial step towards granting full rights to homosexuals and their children and opening minds in a society dominated by traditional heteronormative attitudes.
“It’s the best we’d have from a centre-right government with that kind of internal opposition and the whole Orthodox Church pushing you,” Ms Belia said. “I have to hand it over to Mitsotakis to watch.”
