Greece set to defy Orthodox tradition and legalise gay marriage

Greece is set to become the first Christian Orthodox country to follow western and northern Europe in allowing gay marriage when the centre-right government of prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis introduces legislation next week.

“It’s a significant step for Greece. The country was one of the last in the EU to recognise such rights and is now joining a club of member states that it did not belong to until now,” said Aristides Hatzis, Professor of Legal Theory at the University of Athens.

Katerina Teliou, a same-sex parent, said she would “run to get married” to her partner so that they can both be recognised as legal parents of her three-year-old daughter.

“If something had happened to me, my daughter would have ended up in an orphanage, even though she had another mum. It was completely absurd,” Teliou said.

Greece’s socially liberal move under Mitsotakis stands in stark contrast to other Orthodox nations, most notably Vladimir Putin’s Russia, where LGBT+ advocacy groups are banned, as are actions deemed to be promoting “non-traditional sexual relations” in films, advertising and online.

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The Greek law is also noteworthy because — as in Germany under Angela Merkel and the UK under David Cameron — it comes during an administration led by the centre-right, not a socialist government, and indicates the political confidence of Mitsotakis.

“What we are going to legislate is marriage equality, removing any discrimination based on sexual orientation. It is not something radically different from what applies in other European countries” said Mitsotakis in a recent interview at state broadcaster ERT.

For the bill to pass, Mitsotakis will need votes from Greece’s left, which is divided over same-sex marriage, because a quarter of the MPs from his own New Democracy party are expected to abstain from or vote against the bill.

Political analysts initially perceived the idea of introducing the bill as a risky move for Mitsotakis. But his firm control of his party and strong approval rating from voters suggest he has made a calculated decision that will pay off.

“The opposition is nowhere to be seen at the moment, which creates a wind of opportunity, strong enough to spend some political capital on this controversial matter,” said Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of political risk at advisory company Teneo.

This move may contribute to restoring Mitsotakis’s liberal credentials, which were damaged during his first term of office.

He has overseen a strong economic performance over the past four years, with Greece recovering its investment-grade status in the bond markets. But Mitsotakis’s reputation was tarnished by a wiretapping scandal in which the security services overseen by his nephew spied on politicians and journalists.

The government was also accused of illegal pushbacks of refugees at its borders and of presiding over a decline in media pluralism. “The legalisation of same-sex marriages helps to reinforce his reformist profile,” said Piccoli.

The powerful Greek Orthodox church, to which more than 80 per cent of the country’s 11mn population belong, has resisted the recent strengthening of LGBT+ rights.

The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece sent a letter last week to the 300 members of the Greek parliament, stressing the damage it said the new law would wreak on the institution of the family and children.

“The bill abolishes paternity and maternity . . . and places the rights of homosexual adults above the interests of future children, which will allow them to be parented by same-sex couples and grow up without a father or mother in an environment of confusing gender roles,” it said.

Although some bishops supported the idea of countrywide rallies against the law, a senior church official said that the church did not want to divide the country, and the idea was dropped.

“We cannot interfere in the legislative process — it’s a state matter to enact the laws,” said Harry Konidaris, spokesperson of Archbishop Ieronymos, the church’s most senior cleric.

According to the latest poll, carried out by Metron Analysis at the end of January, 62 per cent of those polled were in favour of the government’s same-sex marriage bill. But the survey also showed that 69 per cent were against same-sex parenthood.

In 2015, Greece recognised cohabitation agreements for same-sex couples, providing them with some rights and benefits, but they were still not allowed to have or adopt children as a couple. The new law will change that.

While allowing same-sex civil marriages, the bill does not permit same-sex couples to have children from surrogate mothers. Surrogacy has been available since 2002 in the country but only to women who are unable to bear children on health grounds.

However, if a couple has a child through a surrogate mother abroad and returns to Greece, the child will be recognised.

“The law is a good start, but we still cannot be talking about equal rights,” said Katerina Trimmi, member of the Greek National Commission of Human Rights and lawyer of the organisation “Rainbow Families”, since just one of the parents will be automatically recognised and the other will have to go to court and go through adoption procedures.

Lina Papadopoulou, a constitutional law professor at the University of Thessaloniki who contributed to the bill’s drafting, defended the law.

“The state was depriving them of a dad when, in reality, they have two dads,” she said.