Parliament must legislate this Thursday, February 15, in favor of marriage for same-sex couples. It is the conservative party in power which is carrying this bill. According to the Greek government, this law will put an end to a years-old injustice.
This law marks progress for the rights of the LGBT community, particularly for parents who have chosen to resort to surrogacy. According to Greek law, a child can have an unknown father, but not an unknown mother. Which is a major obstacle in the life of homosexual parents.
Angelo Michaelides is the father of two little girls born in the United States to a surrogate mother. This doctor, who lives in Athens, is impatient for this law to be promulgated.
“As soon as the law is passed, I will register my children in the civil registry. Thus, they will be visible to the State. They will have a social security number and free medical care, like all children. I will be more serene and I will no longer have to work from morning to night to be able to pay for their private school. My daughters will be able to go to a public school“.
However, several MPs have reservations about adoption by same-sex couples. In Greece, demonstrations took place to protest against same-sex marriage.
For Lina Papadopoulou, professor of constitutional law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, this law is a step forward for children, until now ignored by the State.
“Many children grow up with two fathers or two mothers. These children, at home, when they go out for a walk, when they play basketball, when they go to the hospital, have their two mothers by their side. However, the state comes to take away their mother, deprives them of her, removes her from their documents and tells them that they do not have a second mother. However, the children know that they have a second mother. The important thing is that from now on, children will no longer be deprived of their second parent because of state policy.”
However, this law divides Greek society; far-right parties and the Orthodox Church are firmly opposed to it.
With the adoption of this bill, Greece becomes the 16th country in the European Union to allow same-sex couples to marry civilly.
For the LGBTI+ community, this is a great victory and a moment they have been waiting for for many years. The most important thing is that the rights of the children of same-sex couples, who until today were almost invisible to the state, are finally guaranteed.