Greece has become the first Christian Orthodox country to legalise same-sex marriage. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the new law will “boldly abolish a serious inequality”.
This comes despite the church opposing the law, as those disapproving of the move have set their sights on restricting couples’ ability to have children.
Same-sex marriage: the opposition
The law passed in Greece has surprised many across the world, as the nation is known for being strongly embedded in its Orthodox views, with the Greek church still playing an important role in the country’s political landscape.
Certain political figures, such as the governing party’s former prime minister Antonis Samaras, showed their disapproval of the move: “Same-sex marriage is not a human right and it’s not an international obligation for our country.”
Before the law was passed, the Holy Synod, which consists of a group of bishops, delivered a 1,500-word document in which they showed their opposition to the new measure lies not in same-sex marriage but in same-sex parents in particular.
The real issue at hand: same-sex parents
Currently, the church in Greece has enough power to be able to request a withdrawal of a bill it does not approve of through the collection of signatures, but the leader of the Orthodox Church in Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, chose not to and allowed the bill to pass, showing this is not where the issue lies.
The Greek church has always made it clear that they cannot allow same-sex couples to become parents, as they believe a child should have both father and mother figures in their life.
With that in mind, the Archbishop did request a roll-call vote in parliament recently before the bill was passed in an attempt to make MPs reconsider before voting. He claimed that the roll-call vote was requested for “democracy and the interests of the Greek people.”
Despite giving the freedom of marriage to the LGBTQ+ community, it is currently illegal for same-sex couples to adopt or carry out surrogacy in Greece. This then ties in with the new bill, as the church believes same-sex marriage will lead to an increase of same-sex parents.
The church added: “the extension of marriage to same-sex couples is not legally permissible, excluding them from the right to adoption that currently applies to married couples.”
Voices of Greece
Other than the opposition stemming from the church, surveys conducted by the Greek TV news channel Skai showed how the Greek public reacted to the new law.
Although the overall view was positive, with 52% of people either saying they want the law to pass or that they have no problem with it, 33% said they do not want the law to pass, showing one in three disapprove of the move.
Growing up in Greece, I know that most of those in the 33% have these views because of long lasting issues in Greece’s view on same-sex attraction. These deep-rooted issues tend to originate from the older generations who have been raised with tough religious views and then passed those on to their children and grandchildren.
This narrative is further supported by some of the articles produced by the country’s largest online news providers. In particular, the news provider Zoogla published an article about a woman named Milly Montana who grew up with two mothers, and raised the issue of children growing up either motherless or fatherless.
In the original article published by the Australian news network ABC in 2016, Milly said: “I honestly don’t think it’s ethical to make an elective choice to have a child be motherless or fatherless without a good reason.”
Eight years later, Zoogla makes it seem that children with same-sex parents are complaining that it is unfair to be put in that situation now, whilst stating: “Nobody wants to listen to the other side of the ‘Rainbow.’”
With this story from eight years ago being brought into the conversation now and research showing that one in three people in Greece disapprove of the new law, it is clear to see that the Orthodox nation still has a long way to go until LGBTQ+ communities are given their full rights. But this is a start.
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