Greece Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage in First for Orthodox Nation
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s legislation marks a break with the nation’s past.
Visitors applaud after a vote on the same-sex marriage bill in parliament in Athens on Feb. 15.
Photographer: Yorgos Karahalis/BloombergFor more than 20 years, Stavros Gavriliadis and Dimitrios Elefsiniotis have been building a life together. They bought a house and started a family. But under Greek law, they couldn’t marry or both be recognized as the parents of their three children — until this week.
Greece’s parliament voted on Thursday to extend equal marriage and automatic parental rights to all of the country’s 10.5 million citizens, and to allow same-sex couples to adopt. It is the first majority Christian Orthodox country to take the step, and now stands out in a region largely opposed to change.