Greece has become the first Orthodox Christian country to legalize same-sex civil marriage, despite opposition from Church officials, the AP reports. A cross-party majority of 176 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament voted late Thursday in favor of the bill drafted by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' center-right government. Another 76 rejected the reform while two abstained from the vote and 46 were not present for the vote. The new law recognizes parental rights for same-sex couples, but will not allow gay men to acquire biological children through surrogate mothers in Greece—an option currently available to women who can't have children for health reasons.
Opinion polls have suggested that most Greeks support the reform by a narrow margin. The issue has failed to trigger deep divisions in a country more worried about the high cost of living. The landmark bill was backed by four left-wing parties, including the main opposition Syriza. Three small far-right parties and the Stalinist-rooted Communist Party rejected the draft law. Supporters, waving rainbow banners, and opponents of the bill, holding religious icons and praying, held separate small, peaceful gatherings outside parliament Thursday.
"People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us. And with them, many children (will) finally find their rightful place," Mitsotakis told lawmakers ahead of the evening vote. The bill would confer full parental rights on married same-sex partners with children. Same-sex civil partnerships have been allowed in Greece since 2015. But that only conferred legal guardianship to the biological parents of children in those relationships, leaving their partners in a bureaucratic limbo.
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