Greek government approves same-sex marriage

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- The Greek government on Thursday approved same-sex marriage despite opposition from the influential domestic Orthodox Church.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis personally lobbied for the bill's passage, which also backed same-sex adoptions. He claimed that the status quo made same-sex families "invisible."

"The vote has passed: as of tonight, Greece is proud to become the 16th EU country to legislate marriage equality," Mitsotakis said on X. "This is a milestone for human rights, reflecting today's Greece -- progressive and democratic country, passionately committed to European values."

The bill, which passed 176-76 does not support childbirth using a surrogate, which Mitsotakis opposed.

"The idea of women who are turned into child-producing machines on demand ... that is not going to happen," he said.

MP Antonis Samaras, the former prime minister under Mitsotakis' New Democracy Party railed against the measure he called "dangerous," charging it will reshape Greek family law for worse.

"Same-sex marriage does not constitute a human right," Samaras said. "A child requires both a father and a mother. The proposed legislation represents a fundamental departure from national law and contradicts the beliefs of millions of Greeks."

The Holy Synod, which oversees the Church of Greece, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which governs Orthodox churches worldwide both opposed the bill ahead of the vote, stressing that marriage is the "union of a man and a woman."

Despina Paraskeva-Voloudogianni, Amnesty International's Greece campaign coordinator, said the bill is historic but did not go far enough.

"This law represents an important milestone in the fight against homophobia and transphobia and a hard-won victory for those who have led that fight. It gives same-sex couples and their children the visibility and rights that they have long been denied," Paraskeva-Voloudogianni said.

"[The bill] stops short of allowing full equality for non-biological parents and does not recognize the identities beyond the gender binary. It fails to facilitate access to assisted reproductive technology for same-sex couples, single men, transgender and intersex persons."