Athens:
The Greek parliament overwhelmingly passed a bill on Thursday that legalizes same-sex marriage and adoption. It is a landmark reform being promoted by the conservative government despite opposition from the powerful Orthodox Church.
Once the law is promulgated, Greece will become the 37th country in the world and the first Orthodox Christian country to legalize adoption by same-sex families.
The bill, which was backed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' New Democracy party, was approved with 176 votes from the 245 MPs present after two days of debates.
“This is a milestone for human rights, reflecting today's Greece – a progressive and democratic country, passionately committed to European values,” Mitsotakis said on X, formerly Twitter.
When the results were announced, dozens of people with rainbow flags celebrated in front of the parliament building in central Athens.
Although dozens of lawmakers from the ruling New Democracy party were expected to oppose the bill, support from opposition parties meant it would certainly pass.
Mitsotakis, who personally spearheaded the bill, had urged lawmakers to “boldly abolish a serious inequality” in Greece's democracy that had made same-sex families “invisible.”
The reform would “significantly improve the lives of a good number of our fellow citizens, without taking anything away from the lives of many,” he added.
The vote was seen as historic by LGBTQ associations, which said same-sex families faced a labyrinth of administrative challenges that amount to discrimination under current family law.
If their children become ill in Greece, non-biological parents currently do not have the right to decide what medical procedures are necessary for them.
Children do not automatically inherit from their non-biological parents.
If a child has two fathers, it can only be registered with the civil registry and benefit from social security benefits by entering the name of the biological mother.
And if the biological parent dies, the state can take children from the other parent.
– Church 'totally against' –
Dozens of the 158 MPs from Mitsotakis' conservative New Democracy party were expected to oppose the bill or abstain from voting.
However, the support of the main left-wing opposition party Syriza – its leader Stefanos Kasselakis is homosexual – the socialist Pasok party and other smaller parties made defeat virtually impossible.
A simple majority in the 300-member parliament was needed to pass the bill.
The Church of Greece – which has close ties to many government MPs – has said it is “totally opposed” to the reform, arguing it is “condemning” children to grow up in an “environment of confusion”.
Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of the church, denounced the proposed law as part of an attempt to impose a “new reality that only aims to corrupt the social cohesion of the homeland.”
About 4,000 people demonstrated against the measure in Athens on Sunday, many of them brandishing religious icons and crucifixes.
“It is said that Greece is thirty years behind the rest of the world. In such cases, thank God, that is the case,” parliamentary spokesman for the far-right party Niki said on Wednesday during the two-day debate.
Kasselakis, who married his partner in an American ceremony in October, has been subjected to homophobic insults, most recently by a mayor of central Greece and a governor of an island group.
Mitsotakis was careful to emphasize last month that the changes would only benefit “a few children and couples.”
The conservative leader, who comfortably won re-election in June, had promised to implement the reform during his second four-year term.
He announced it in January, just days after Kasselakis said Syriza would submit their own proposals for marriage equality.
– 'Day of joy' –
Greek LGBTQ families, who had kept a low profile since the reform was unveiled last month, called for a celebratory gathering in Athens on Thursday.
“This is a day of joy,” Rainbow Families Greece, an NGO that helps LGBTQ families, said on Facebook.
Same-sex couples will still not be able to use assisted reproduction or a surrogate mother, procedures reserved for single women or heterosexual couples who have difficulty conceiving.
Greece was convicted of anti-gay discrimination by the European Court of Human Rights in 2013 after gay couples were excluded from a 2008 civil union.
Opinion polls show that most Greeks support gay marriage but oppose surrogacy.
The Greek constitution has allowed single parents, regardless of gender, to adopt since 1946, but until now the second partner in a same-sex union has been left out of the process.
Under the previous Syriza government, Greece legalized civil unions for same-sex couples in 2015, one of the last countries in the European Union to do so.
That law had resolved property and inheritance issues, but did not provide for the adoption of children.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)