Gay Rights: Greece legalises same-sex marriage, becomes the first Orthodox-Christaian country to accept union of same gender in the church. Image via Reuters
Greece has, after years of, has become the first Christian-majority country to legally approve same-sex marriage.
Couples of Same-sex gender will now after Thursday’s vote be legally permitted to adopt children.
According to a BBC report, the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the new law would confidently “abolish a serious inequality”.
However, the new law has sparked division in the country among top Orthodox church leaders who insist, with strong fierce resistance, that such law is unacceptable on basis of their faith
Before the legislation succeeded, the bill needed a simple majority to go through the 300-member parliament to be effected into law.
Mr Mitsotakis championed the bill but required the support of opposition parties to get it over the line, with dozens of MPs from his centre-right governing party opposed, a source said.
“People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us, and with them, many children will finally find their rightful place,” the prime minister said to parliament, during a debate before the vote.
“The reform makes the lives of several of our fellow citizens better, without taking away anything from the lives of the many.”
While some Church groups rallied at the Syntagma Square in Athens on Thursday, with many carrying crosses, saying prayers and singing Bible passages as they displayed banners, LGBTQ organisations in Greece have hailed the vote as a historic progress .
Same-sex marriage is already permitted in 35 countries, where 27 members of the fifteen of the European Union’s have already legalised it.
Greece became the last of its European neighbours to embrace the same-sex marriage, due to the church opposition to the such law.
