By ANTHEE CARASSAVA June 4, 2008
ATHENS — Defying governmental wrath, the mayor of a remote Greek
island performed the country's first same-sex marriages on Tuesday,
wedding two men and two women.
The civil ceremonies, held at sunrise in the nondescript town hall of
Tilos, a tiny island in the eastern Aegean Sea, defied statements by a
senior Greek prosecutor last week that such unions were illegal.
"It's done, now," the mayor, Anastassios Aliferis, said in a telephone
interview. "The unions have been registered, and the licenses have
been issued. It's a historic moment."
With its abundance of glamorous gay bars and summer island resorts
like Mykonos, Greece has long drawn thousands of gay tourists
annually. But gay men and lesbians in this European Union nation of 11
million people frequently complain of discrimination. Public displays
of affection are widely frowned upon. The country's military bars gay
men and lesbians from joining its ranks, and in 2003 a private Greek
television network, Mega Channel, was fined $116,000 by the National
Radio and Television Council for showing men kissing in a weekly
drama. Greece's powerful Orthodox Church has also denounced
homosexuality as a sin and "defect of human nature."
On Tuesday, however, a bubbling just-married Evangelia Vlami emerged
from the Tilos town hall, telling the BBC that the unions would help
end discrimination. "We did this to encourage other gay people to take
a stand," she said.
About two dozen people attended the no-frills ceremony, held under the
watchful eyes of police officers and dumbfounded locals.
"I couldn't believe it," said Sofia Kamma, a resident contacted by
phone. "I know they're people too, but couldn't they have gone on
doing what they were doing without getting our community involved?"
Greek gay rights groups have noted a loophole in a 1982 law that does
not specify that a civil union must involve a man and woman.
But last week, as the gay couples made plans to tie the knot, taking
out a wedding notice in a local newspaper, Greece's top prosecutor,
Giorgos Sanidas, warned that any same-sex marriage would be
"automatically nullified and considered illegal."
He said the decree was founded in the spirit of the Constitution,
which defines marriage as matrimony between a man and a woman with the
intent of forming a family.
But Mr. Aliferis, a Socialist foe of the ruling conservative
government, insisted otherwise. "There is no court in Europe that will
side by this arcane reading of the Constitution," he said. "What
happens if a couple cannot reproduce and have a family? Is their
marriage null and void?"
Gay activists have warned that they may now begin to sue any of the
country's municipalities if civil authorities resist requests for
similar same-sex unions.
The Netherlands was the first European Union country to offer full
civil marriage rights to gay couples, in 2001. Belgium did so in 2003,
followed by Spain, despite fierce opposition from the Roman Catholic
Church.
Most other European Union countries have varying forms of civil unions.
"It's ludicrous for Greece, the cradle of democracy and human rights,
to deny homosexuals equal rights and privileges," Mr. Aliferis said.
"Officials should take the time and reassess their views."
Gay activists have vowed to seek recourse with the European Court of
Justice if authorities in Greece continue to challenge same-sex
marriages.
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