{"id":15650,"date":"2024-02-16T12:49:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T12:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/greece-legalizes-same-sex-marriage-in-a-first-for-an-orthodox-christian-country\/"},"modified":"2024-02-16T12:49:11","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T12:49:11","slug":"greece-legalizes-same-sex-marriage-in-a-first-for-an-orthodox-christian-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/greece-legalizes-same-sex-marriage-in-a-first-for-an-orthodox-christian-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece legalizes same-sex marriage in a first for an Orthodox Christian country"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Greek parliament on Thursday passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage, in a landmark victory for human rights in Greece and making it the first majority Orthodox Christian country to establish marriage equality for all. <\/p>\n

The decision,\u00a0supported by 176 out of 300 lawmakers in parliament and with 76 against, follows months of polarized political and public discourse, and has been welcomed as a long-awaited vindication by the country\u2019s LGBTQ+ couples. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a milestone for human rights, reflecting today\u2019s Greece \u2013 a progressive, and democratic country, passionately committed to European values,\u201d Greece\u2019s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a post on X following the vote. <\/p>\n

Parental and children\u2019s rights are a cornerstone of the legislation, which will allow same-sex couples to adopt and receive full parental recognition. <\/p>\n

Although Greece introduced civil partnerships for gay couples nearly a decade ago\u00a0under the left-wing Syriza government,\u00a0only the biological parents of children in those relationships\u00a0were\u00a0recognized as legal guardians.\u00a0Now, same-sex parents can both be recognized as legal parents to their children. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe new law will finally provide same-sex parents some peace of mind on fundamental issues including\u00a0parental rights to a surviving parent in the event of their partner\u2019s death,\u201d\u00a0said Katerina Trimmi, a member of the Greek National Commission of Human Rights and\u00a0a\u00a0lawyer from the organization Rainbow Families.\u00a0She noted however that such parents will need to go through formal adoption procedures, saying that parental rights could have been established \u201cin a simpler way.\u201d <\/p>\n

Same-sex couples\u00a0can now also\u00a0adopt\u00a0in Greece,\u00a0but not have a baby through a surrogate.\u00a0Like in much of the EU,\u00a0surrogacy remains a thorny issue\u00a0and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who tabled the legislation as \u201ca matter of equality,\u201d clarified early on that this was not something he was willing to tackle.\u00a0\u201cThe idea of women who are turned into child-producing machines on demand \u2026 that is not going to happen.\u201d <\/p>\n

However the new\u00a0legislation does recognize\u00a0the status of existing offspring, including those adopted or born to surrogates abroad. <\/p>\n

Divided society<\/h2>\n

The build-up to the vote has been an uphill battle with emotions running high. It was never going to be easy.\u00a0In Greece the push came from a center-right party with many of its voters supporting traditional family values. <\/p>\n

Fifteen of the European Union\u2019s 27 members have already legalized same-sex marriage\u00a0and Mitsotakis, empowered by a recent fresh mandate, stuck to his guns to see the bill through, signaling his intention for his government to be further aligned with the more progressive EU forces. <\/p>\n

Polls show that Greek society at its core remains a country of traditional family values and structures, while it continues to lag other Western countries in issues of gender equality. In 2022, Athens placed last in the EU\u2019s Gender Equality Index with only slight improvement in 2023. <\/p>\n

A recent poll\u00a0carried out\u00a0by Metron Analysis\u00a0showed\u00a0that although\u00a062% of\u00a0respondents said they were\u00a0in favor of\u00a0same-sex marriage,\u00a069% were against same-sex parenthood.\u00a0Surveys directed exclusively at young respondents showed higher support rates. <\/p>\n

The same-sex marriage bill has drawn the wrath of the influential Greek Orthodox Church to which\u00a0more than 80% of\u00a0the\u00a0population belong. <\/p>\n

In a letter addressed to all 300 of Greece\u2019s parliamentarians ahead of the vote, the Church\u2019s governing body said the bill\u00a0places the rights of homosexual adults above the interests of future children, by allowing them \u201cto be parented by same-sex couples and grow up without a father or mother in an environment of confusing gender roles.\u201d <\/p>\n

Senior bishops have threatened mobilizations. At a protest rally outside\u00a0parliament, crucifix-holding protesters, including robed priests, joined far-right supporters in chanting:\u00a0\u201cTake your hands off our\u00a0children.\u201d <\/p>\n

The center-right New Democracy government that sponsored the bill failed to garner the support of some of its own 158 politicians in the 300 seat parliament, requiring votes from center and left opposition parties for the legislation to pass. <\/p>\n

IT student Alexis Rafailides, 21, said Thursday\u2019s vote was important because there is \u201cso much\u201d discrimination against the community in\u00a0Greece. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I could be myself for such a long time until I met more people that are like me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Political boost<\/h2>\n

Days into his second term, empowered by a landslide election win which saw the centrist and center-left suffer\u00a0catastrophic losses, Mitsotakis pledged his support for same-sex marriage legislation. <\/p>\n

The rise of Stefanos Kasselakis, an openly gay Greek-American political unknown whose communication skills helped catapult him to the helm of\u00a0Syriza, the main opposition party, in September, may have served as a political boost. \u201cIt felt to me like Mitsotakis was giving the progressive forces a carrot that he would use at a convenient time but without providing specifics,\u201d Kasselakis said. <\/p>\n

Accompanied by his longtime American partner Tyler McBeth throughout his campaign, Kasselakis kept his same-sex relationship in the Greek public eye. <\/p>\n

In October, the couple married in the US. Addressing Greek media at the time, Kasselakis stirred further\u00a0controversy:\u00a0\u201cWe would like to have two boys, Apollo and Elias\u2026 through a surrogate mother.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said the new law was a step in the right direction\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve been very fortunate. I have lived in very open societies. But not everyone in Greece has.\u201d <\/p>\n

Freedom to dream<\/h2>\n

The political timing is significant beyond\u00a0Greece\u2019s borders. The\u00a0legislation\u00a0brings the country\u00a0in line with 20 other European\u00a0nations and strengthens its human rights\u00a0credentials\u00a0ahead of upcoming European elections. It also helps\u00a0distance the ruling party from recent\u00a0allegations of wiretapping opponents, migrant pushbacks and\u00a0a media freedom backslide.\u00a0Greece came last among EU countries in Reporters Without Borders 2023 World Press Freedom Index. <\/p>\n

Yet there is a political risk.\u00a0The last Greek elections saw the far right surge, with three fringe parties entering parliament. Together they hold\u00a0a bloc of more than 30 seats. All three voted against the same-sex marriage law, and the\u00a0legislation could\u00a0still push some angry voters to the right ahead of European elections in June. <\/p>\n

For\u00a0activists and members of the LGBTQ+ community like 24-year-old Angelo, who left his village near the agricultural town of Karditsa to live with his boyfriend in Athens and who declined to give his last name \u201cto make sure his family does not find out,\u201d a battle in their birthplace\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the birthplace of democracy\u00a0\u2013\u00a0has been won. <\/p>\n

This is a breaking news story. More details to come.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Greek parliament on Thursday passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage, in a landmark victory for human rights in Greece and making it the first majority Orthodox Christian country to establish marriage equality for all. The decision,\u00a0supported by 176 out of 300 lawmakers in parliament and with 76 against, follows months of polarized political and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}