Mitsotakis has faced fierce opposition on same-sex marriage

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is facing one of his biggest challenges yet after his promise to legalize same-sex marriage sparked fierce debate in the Orthodox country, the Guardian reported.
Throwing his full weight behind an issue that is still prone to extreme emotions, not least among his own MPs, Mitsotakis admits he will have to use his persuasive skills to push through the reform as the opposition in his center-right party "New Democracy" is gaining strength.
"I and all those who believe in this legislation must convince our MPs, and subsequently those who still have a negative position," he said in his first interview of the year. "What we will pass as law is marriage equality, which means removing all discrimination based on sexual orientation. This is not something radically different from what is applied in other European countries."
The leader's intervention, six months after securing a second term in a landslide victory "to reform the country", underscores how sensitive the issue of gay rights remains in Greece. In a society considered one of the most socially conservative in Europe, Mitsotakis, who belongs to the moderate New Democracy faction, faces not only the disapproval of his own MPs but also the staunch opposition of the state's powerful Orthodox Church. The clerics have repeatedly warned that endorsing same-sex marriage would be the first step towards gaining parental rights from the LGBTI community, going so far as to suggest that it would lead to the destruction of Greek society.
"Children are neither pets nor accessories," says a recent circular distributed to dioceses. "No amount of social modernization and no amount of political correctness can deceive children's natural need for a father and a mother." Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, who previously threatened to excommunicate MPs if they voted to legalize same-sex unions, went further, calling homosexuality an "abuse of the body" and a "great sin".
Opinions appeared on the front pages of the two right-wing dailies, Estia and Dimokratia, that the proposed law could threaten the government's parliamentary majority and even prove to be Mitsotakis's "Waterloo".
The Prime Minister, who stated that he had not only "read and studied" the topic, but also thought a lot about it, said that Greece will not legalize surrogate parenthood.
"We're not going to change the law on assisted parenting," he said, first addressing the issue publicly on Jan. 10. He emphasized that same-sex couples, like heterosexual ones, can continue to adopt children.
Wading into the debate with its own legislative proposal earlier this week, the main opposition left-wing Syriza party, which is led by Greece's first openly gay party leader Stefanos Kaselakis, insisted surrogacy should be considered innate parenting right.
Kaselakis, who took over as party leader in September, arranged to marry his long-time American partner, Tyler McBeth, in the US in October. Within weeks of his unexpected election as party leader, the former banker spoke of the couple's desire to have children through surrogacy. "These are issues that are resolved in other countries, but not in Greece," the opposition leader wrote on Facebook. "That's why I entered politics. To stir the stagnant waters, to awaken consciences, not to caress them in their sleep."
Mitsotakis, who faces opposition from leading cabinet ministers, said he was prompted to take up the issue mainly because the children of homosexuals are not recognized under Greek law.
"I don't think anyone doubts this reality: that homosexual couples have children, and those children will not cease to exist, they will not disappear. But these children do not have equal rights," the head of government said, citing the example of the non-biological mother in a lesbian relationship who does not have legal access to the couple's child in case her partner becomes ill. "She has no rights. The child will go to an institution ... A child born abroad cannot become a Greek citizen because, very simply, we do not recognize same-sex marriages in Greece"./BGNES