Greece just got one big step closer to marriage equality

Just days after hedging on a timeline to introduce legislation to legalize gay marriage in Greece, the recently reelected center-right prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis got a major boost for his campaign pledge with the endorsement of gay opposition leader Stefanos Kasselakis.

The legislation, unveiled Wednesday, is fiercely opposed by a faction of Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party and other right-leaning lawmakers in the Greek Parliament, as well as by the Greek Orthodox Church. Support by the left-leaning Syriza party’s 38 members would ensure passage.

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Greece’s Prime Minister faces fierce opposition over his pledge to legalize gay marriage

Mitsotakis is motivated by the fact that the children of gay parents have no legal status in Greece.

Kasselakis said he would overlook “imperfections” in the bill and instruct his party to vote for the proposal, which retains a prohibition on surrogacy for gay couples who want to become parents. Draft legislation tabled earlier in the week by Syriza would have granted that right to same-sex couples.  

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The Syriza leader focused on the “positive elements” of the legislation while criticizing right-wing New Democracy lawmakers who oppose the bill for their “political cowardice.”

Kasselakis shot to prominence in September after his surprise election to lead the left-leaning opposition party. The 35-year-old former Goldman Sachs banker married his American husband, Tyler McBeth, in the U.S. in October.

“When this draft law comes to parliament,” Kasselakis told Star TV in Greece, “it will be approved thanks to Syriza.”

While surrogacy is barred for gay couples in the bill, full parental rights would be granted to same-sex parents who already have children.

“We won’t change the law on assisted parenthood,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis said, addressing the issue for the first time publicly on Wednesday evening. He made clear same-sex couples could continue to adopt children.

The prime minister cited the plight of the children of gay couples, who aren’t recognized under Greek law, as impetus for the proposed change. Greece legalized same-sex civil partnerships in 2015.

A recent poll shows 49% of Greeks are opposed to legalizing same-sex unions, with 35% in favor. An even larger number reject extending full parental rights to gay or lesbian couples. Gay parents raising children is also the focus of the Church’s objections to extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.