Following weeks of public debate, and two days of sometimes heated discussion in Parliament, the government’s bill legalising same-sex civil marriage was passed by a majority vote on Thursday 15^th February. The final count was 175 votes in favour, 77 against and 2 abstentions, while 46 MPs were absent from the chamber. With the passing of the bill, Greece becomes the 16^th EU nation to adopt similar legislation, but more significantly the first Orthodox Christian country to do so, and the first in the traditionally more conservative south east of Europe.

The legislation gives the right to both same-sex parents to be considered a child’s legal guardian – a right which hitherto only applied to the biological parent. It thus clears the way for adoption, but does not provide same-sex couples with access to assisted reproduction or to acquiring children through surrogate motherhood.

The issue had polarised the nation long before the actual publication of the bill. The Greek Orthodox Church held an emergency Holy Synod on 23rd January, at which it reiterated its opposition to same-sex marriage – unsurprisingly since it also remains opposed to civil marriages generally. The Synod issued a communiqué upholding the principle of marriage between man and woman as sanctified by God, and announced that it was drafting a letter to be sent to all MPs and a statement to be read out in all churches on Sunday 4^th February. The full text of its position can be seen here: https://orthochristian.com/158326.html.

The government declared that voting would be matter of conscience, and most parties followed suit. Only the SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis, who is himself the partner in a gay marriage, declared that party discipline would be imposed. Indeed the issue caused division within the parties: “no” votes or absences were expected from 50 Nea Dimokratia MPs and 20 from SYRIZA and PASOK.

Generally, opinions were divided across the political spectrum, with left-wing parties (SYRIZA, PASOK, Plevsi Eleftherias, and the SYRIZA breakaway party New Left) supporting the bill, and the far right (Elliniki Lysi, Niki, Spartiates) opposing it. The exception was the Communist Party of Greece, KKE, who voted against it, seeing it as a move which would adversely affect the future rights of children.

The opposing arguments
The arguments voiced in favour of the bill were generally:
– that it was matter of equality, conferring a human right which was enjoyed by the majority of the population on a minority who had been hitherto excluded from it;
– that it recognised the rights of children in existing gay marriages, releasing them from uncertainty and discrimination;
– that it was a necessary further step in the modernisation and Europeanisation of the Greek state.

The main arguments against were that:
– it represented a weakening of the traditional institution of marriage between man and woman which is the foundation of Christian society, at a time when Greece faces a severe problem of population decline over the next decades;
– that it offered little in addition to what is already provided by the institution of civil partnerships, which has been in force since 2015, while introducing ambiguity over parental roles and having potentially damaging effects on the children raised in such marriages.

These arguments were aired at length during the two-day Parliamentary debate, at which 95 MPs had registered to speak. In his introductory address, the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made clear the government’s reasons for introducing the bill, throwing into sharp relief the difficulties hitherto faced by the children of homosexual couples:

“Mr President, ladies and gentlemen MPs, we are here today to confront, all together and with responsibility, an existing social reality, boldly removing a serious inequality in our democracy. We are here today to protect the self-evident rights of children through the “shield” of their parents and with a necessary addition to Family Law to finally bring justice into the daily lives of our fellow citizens of the same sex.
“Because the revision which we are legalising today, relating to equal access to civil marriage, makes the lives of quite a few of our fellow citizens very much better, without, and I emphasise this, taking anything away from the lives of the many. It is something which is provided for by the Constitution, something which is demanded by our very form of government, so as to make “visible” around us people who have been hitherto “invisible”. And with them [to enable] many children to finally find the position which they are due, beside all the others.
“This moreover is at the centre of the bill’s interest, since the two parents of homosexual couples do not yet legally have the same possibilities to offer their children the things which they need: to be able to pick them up from school, to be able to take them on trips, to go to the doctor or to the hospital whenever it’s needed. And if, God forbid, the only recognised parent is lost, then they will have to be taken to some unknown distant relation, or even worse, to some institution for fostering. All that, moreover, without their being able to inherit from the people who raised them, or indeed to be assured of nourishment and care in the case of the parents separating.
“This is the void which we have come to fill, at the same time permitting all those people, if they so wish, to institutionally seal their relationship with a ceremony at the Town Hall, exactly as heterosexual couples do.” (Primeminister.gr)

Speaking in favour of the bill, some MPs from the left wing opposition parties simply expressed their satisfaction that the bill was going through and said that they supported it wholeheartedly. Others said they were voting in favour although they had reservations that the bill did not go far enough – especially in not granting gay male couples the right to acquire children by surrogate motherhood.

Opponents were chiefly concerned that the bill would would signal the demise of the traditional family. The leader of Elliniki Lysi, Kyriakos Velopoulos, said that the country was dying demographically while the government was concerning itself with gay marriage, accusing it of “bowing down before the religion of the woke agenda”, while the leader of Spartiates Vasilis Stigas said that with the passing of the bill “we are erecting the tombstone of the true Greek family”. However, it was former conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras, who had led the country through some of the worst years of the financial crisis, who gave the most cogent expression of conservative opposition to the bill.

In measured tones, and drawing on a wealth of supporting references, he claimed that the bill was not something which the government needed to pass, was not wanted by “millions of Greeks citizens”, and could have unforeseen consequences for Greek society. The government was selling out to the universal pressure of the “woke” agenda, he said, and apart from undermining the structure of the traditional Greek family, it would introduce uncertainty as to parental roles and undoubtedly lead to further dilutions such as the toleration of surrogate motherhood, whose prohibition by the bill would surely lead to legal challenges. Rather than “a torrent of homophobic hatred” as claimed by one SYRIZA MP who spoke after him, it came across as the heartfelt plea of a representative of an older generation and a cultural viewpoint which is being overtaken by events in the wider world.

As the results of the vote were read out by the President of Parliament, there were ecstatic reactions from members of the LBGT community gathered in Syntagma Square and in the public gallery. Later there were celebrations in the winebars of central Athens, one attended by the minister of State Akis Skertsos who had introduced the bill and the Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, while at another SYRIZA’s leader Stefanos Kasselakis danced with his partner Tyler Macbeth and boasted that the bill would not have passed without his party’s support. As reported by Star News, a joint letter of congratulation was issued by the embassies in Athens of 28 countries including Canada, Spain, South Africa and Colombia, while the Prime Minister received a round of applause at the security conference he was attending in Munich the following day.

A modest proposal
Whatever the prevailing views in the rest of the country, it would seem that the issue of gay marriage has raised few eyebrows locally.

A number of years ago, on a wet and gloomy February afternoon, the inhabitants of Afrata village were gathered in the Old School House for the ceremony of cutting the New Year cake, the vasilopita. (The ceremony, held by businesses and organisations across the country, often extends well into the New Year.)

Tables were spread with the traditional dishes – kalitsounia, salads, cheese, and plenty of local wine. The officiating priest, as is often the case, was held up conducting a ceremony in some other village; as time passed a fair amount of wine was drunk and there was a merry atmosphere by the time he finally arrived.

Once settled in his place, the priest intoned the customary blessing, referring to God as the source of all earthly gifts, and proceeded to give a short homily in which he enjoined his parishioners to treat each other with Christian love. But, he said – changing gear to slot in a policy statement clearly received from higher authority – remember that the Orthodox Church does not approve of marriage between homosexuals.

After a moment’s silence, one grizzled shepherd called to another across the room, “Oi, Yiorgos, do yer want to marry me?” The entire room erupted in laughter, which the priest could not refrain from joining in, and the matter was not mentioned again.