Greece legalizes marriage equality

Greece has become the first majority-Orthodox country to legalize marriage equality as the Hellenic Parliament voted for a marriage equality bill in a 176-76 vote yesterday. The law also allows same-sex couples to adopt children.

The law will “boldly abolish a serious inequality,” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of the center-right New Democracy party. Many members of his party abstained or voted against the bill, but it passed with support from the leftwing parties.

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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.

“People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us, and with them, many children will finally find their rightful place,” the prime minister said during the debate just before the vote. “The reform makes the lives of several of our fellow citizens better, without taking away anything from the lives of the many.”

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“This is a historic moment,” Stella Belia of Rainbow Families told Reuters. “This is a day of joy.”

“Its a very important step for human rights, a very important step for equality, and a very important step for Greek society,” Nikos Nikolaidis, who attended a rally supporting the bill, said.

Opponents of the bill cited their religion. The rightwing party Elliniki Lysi (Greek Solution) said the bill was “anti-Christian.”

“Of course I will vote against it,” former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said ahead of the vote. “The marriage of same-sex couples… is not a human right.”

Civil unions have been legal for same-sex couples in Greece since 2015. In 2017, the country allowed trans people to correct their legal genders without having to get surgery or sterilization.

The bill that was just passed doesn’t allow same-sex couples to get help from surrogates, but children born from surrogates abroad are recognized in Greece.