Same-sex marriage in Greece

In July 2023, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, head of the re-elected New Democracy party, announced his government's intention to legalise same-sex marriage.

Legislation recognizing cohabitation agreements, providing same-sex couples with a subset of the rights and benefits of marriage, was approved by the Hellenic Parliament on 23 December 2015 and published in the Government Gazette the following day.

[11] The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) under George Papandreou, then in opposition, presented in April 2006 a legislative proposal for the recognition of unmarried couples, same-sex and opposite-sex, following the French example of the civil solidarity pact.

[12] Responding to government proposals in 2008 to introduce legal rights for cohabiting couples, Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, Primate of the Church of Greece, suggested that "[t]here is a need to change with the time".

[13] Law 3719/2008 ("Reforms concerning the family, children and society"), which entered into force on 26 November 2008, established a form of partnership known as "cohabitation agreements" (Greek: σύμφωνο συμβίωσης, sýmfono symbíōsis, pronounced [ˈsimfono simˈvi.osis]), but only available to opposite-sex couples.

Before the October 2009 legislative election, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement announced its support for same-sex registered partnerships in a reply to a questionnaire sent by the Lesbian & Gay Community of Greece (OLKE; Ομοφυλοφιλική Λεσβιακή Κοινότητα Ελλάδας, Omofylofilikí Lesviakí Koinótita Elládas), an LGBT rights organization.

[14] On 17 September 2010, Minister of Justice Haris Kastanidis announced that a special committee had been formed to prepare a registered partnership law that would include both same-sex and different-sex couples.

[18] In February 2013, Minister of Justice Antonis Roupakiotis said that the government was considering amending the cohabitation agreement law to include same-sex couples.

[21][22] In November 2014, it was announced that many major changes to Greek family law would be considered, including the extension of cohabitation agreements to same-sex couples.

Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos announced that the legislation would not grant adoption rights to same-sex couples, but that the issue "would be studied in the future".

[40][41] On 9 November 2016, the government submitted a draft bill equalizing cohabitation agreements with marriages in several areas including employment benefits and workers' rights.

[47] According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority, the number of cohabitation agreements contracted per year is as follows:[48][49] In 2008, the LGBT rights group OLKE announced its intention to sue municipalities that refused to marry same-sex couples, pointing out a loophole in the 1982 law that legalized civil marriage between "persons", without reference to gender.

[50] On 3 June 2008, Mayor Anastasios Aliferis of Tilos married two same-sex couples, two lesbians and two gay men, citing the legal loophole.

He was heavily criticized by clergymen of the Church of Greece, which in the past had also opposed the introduction of heterosexual civil marriage, the original intent of the 1982 law.

[54] Syriza, the main party in Greece's coalition governments from 2015 to 2019 under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, had promised to legalize same-sex marriage as part of its September 2015 campaign platform,[55] though no legislation was ever proposed.

[5] This included Panos Alexandris, the Secretary General of Justice and Human Rights, and Alex Patelis, the Chief Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister, who had come out as gay in June 2020, becoming the most senior out government official in Greece.

[4] Subsequently, a team was formed from members of the office of the Prime Minister to set up an action plan based on the guidelines included in the national strategy.

In July 2023, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose New Democracy party was re-elected in the June 2023 election, announced his government's intention to legalize same-sex marriage.

[67] Prime Minister Mitsotakis confirmed the government's intention to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption on 10 January,[68] adding that he hoped to have the bill approved before Easter.

[8] Following the vote, a celebratory dinner attended by President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Akis Skertsos, and Alex Patelis faced criticism from the conservative press.

[21] It also provides for the retroactive recognition of same-sex marriages performed abroad, and abolished the requirement that transgender people divorce their partners before being allowed to legally change their gender.

[89][90] A Pew Research Center poll conducted between February and May 2023 showed that 48% of Greeks supported same-sex marriage, 49% were opposed and 3% did not know or had refused to answer.

In early February 2024, an encyclical read out at Orthodox churches at a Sunday morning liturgy opposed measures it said would "promote the abolition of fatherhood and motherhood… and put the sexual choices of homosexual adults above the interests of future children".

[95] Representatives of the monastic community of Mount Athos also expressed opposition to the same-sex marriage law, which does not apply to the autonomous region as it has its own sovereignty within Greece and the European Union.