Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Greece may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Greece, but households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples.
Greece has not adopted many of the laws, provisions and basic rights that gay people enjoy in most developed countries of Western Europe and North America and LGBT issues are a particularly rare subject of public debate. Homosexuality is however becoming less a taboo and gays are enjoying growing visibility through the media, from print to film.
Legal status
Male homosexual practice was decriminalized in 1951 by the new Criminal Code adopted in 1950. Male prostitution has been legal since May 2006. Lesbians are not mentioned or acknowledged in the Greek Criminal Code. There is one relevant provision in effect to this day in the Criminal Code;
- Article 347 of the Greek Criminal Code; which provides for a higher age of consent of 17, for seducing a male person if the male partner is over 18 and for lesbians and both male/female heterosexuals (regardless of close-in-age or not) and for only close-in-age for male homosexuality, the age of sexual consent is 15.
Constitutional arrangements
The Greek constitution provides no definition of marriage. It does stipulate that, like motherhood and childhood, it must be under the protection of the State.
Political parties
In the past, Greek political parties have had differing views. Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), under George Andreas Papandreou presented in April 2006, a legislative proposal for the recognition of unmarried couples, homosexual and heterosexual, following the French example of the Pacte civil de solidarité. However, according to some LGBT groups, the proposal's controversial terminology made little headway on LGBT rights and PASOK's proposed 'partnership' banned same-sex couples from adopting. Greece's left party Coalition of the Radical Left, reportedly supports same-sex marriage and Alekos Alavanos, the former leader of Synaspismos, stated that the coalition backed the fight against all kinds of discrimination and supported the free expression of sexual orientation including the legalization of same-sex marriages.
The former government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis New Democracy was opposed to same-sex marriage. While the New Democracy-led government has introduced legislation that offers several rights to unmarried couples this explicitly includes only different sex couples, and it is the first time in the world that a civil union law has passed only for heterosexual couples.
The National Human Rights Committee proposed a registry that would cover both same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual ones and the Greek group OLKE announced its intention to sue Greek municipalities that refuse to marry gay couples.
The Greek government under George Papandreou, leader of Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), is preparing legislation for same-sex registered partnerships. Haris Kastanidis, the current minister for Justice, Transparency and Human Rights, during an interview on Greek Radio Station VIMA 99.5 on 17 September 2010, said: "The ministry of Justice in cooperation with the General Secretariat of Equality has constituted a legislative standing committee that will make the relevant proposals" for same-sex partnerships and that the government's political will is obvious towards this matter. In the Greek newspaper To Vima (10 October 2010) it is mentioned that this committee "was constituted on 29 July 2010 and, according to its members, its work is to make proposals regarding the modernization of Family Law. Until now, matters regarding heterosexual couples have been discussed, while those regarding same-sex couples will be discussed after January 2011".
Test cases
Although there is no official recognition of same-sex couples, a 1982 law that legalized civil marriage between "persons", without specifying gender, acted as a test-case for same sex marriage. On 3 June 2008, the mayor of Tilos, Anastasios Aliferis, married two homosexual couples, two lesbians and two gay men, citing the legal loophole. He was heavily criticized by clergymen of the Church of Greece, which in the past had also opposed the introduction of civil marriage. Justice Minister Sotirios Hatzigakis declared the Tilos marriages "invalid" and Supreme Court prosecutor Georgios Sanidas warned Mayor Aliferis of the legal repercussions of his "breach of duty", but he said he had "no intention of annulling the marriages". Nevertheless in May 2009 the marriage was officially annulled by the authorities.
Religious opinion
Responding to government proposals in 2008 to introduce legal rights for cohabiting couples, Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, the leader of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece, suggested that "There is a need to change with the time". It is unclear, however, whether this view applied to same-sex couples, particularly as the Church has previously opposed gay rights in general and civil union laws in particular.
Gay life in Greece
Athens has a large number of LGBT associations and a developing gay village in the Gazi, Athens neighborhood. A gay pride event, the 'Athens Pride' (see below) and an international Gay and Lesbian film festival, the 'Outview', are held annually. There is an emerging gay scene in Thessaloniki with some gay/lesbian bars/clubs and several friendly mixed venues, and one LGBT organisation, organising public discussions.
The gay scene in the island of Myconos and the lesbian scene in Eressos, Lesbos is famous internationally.
Athens Pride
The Athens Pride is an annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride parade and festival held every June (since June 2005) in the center of Athens city, Greece. It has been held 7 times:
- 25 June 2005
- 24 June 2006
- 23 June 2007
- 7 June 2008
- 13 June 2009
- 5 June 2010
- 4 June 2011
Discrimination and Protection
The Constitutional does not explicitly address sexual orientation or gender identity issues and civil rights legislation has largely come out in accordance with the European Union Directive 2000/78. Since 2005, anti-gay discrimination in the workplace is generally prohibited, except the armed forces, although the law does not include general identity and it does not address discrimination in areas such as banking, public facilities, education, housing and health care. Likewise, hate crime laws do not include sexual orientation or gender identity.
While there has been considerable legal progress, conservative social mores still hold considerably influence. Public displays of affection between same-sex couples are widely frowned upon and the Orthodox Church has often denounced homosexuality as a sin and "defect of human nature."
Media
Several issues have been raised about the Greek media regulation authority, or Greek National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV) as it is called and its homophobic stance, according to LGBT groups.
- On November 2003, NCRTV fined one of the largest TV networks in Greece, Mega, with 100,000 Euros, partly for having aired a kiss between two male characters of the popular TV show 'Klise ta Matia' (Greek: Κλείσε τα Μάτια). In December 2006, Greece's Council of State, the country's Supreme administrative court, annulled this decision though, ruling that NCRTV's fine was unconstitutional. According to the court, the TV scene reflected an "existing social reality, related to a social group, among many that make up an open and democratic society, whose sexual preferences are not to be condemned". Moreover this was not the first time that a kiss between two male characters was aired in Greek television and the decision was heavily criticised by the Greek media as hypocritical and anachronistic.
- On 21 December 2004 the NCRTV fined '94 Epikoinonia FM' (Greek: 94 Eπικοινωνία FM), a municipal radio station in Athens, with 5,000 Euros, judging the content of the 'Athens Gay and Lesbian Radio Show' as "degrading", resulting in the station cancelling the show. There is not any kind of radio information about LGBT matters anywhere in Greece since.
- On September 2005, NCRTV formally enquired another one of Greece's largest TV networks, ANT1 (Antenna), for airing a publicity spot, by a popular chewing gum brand, depicting two women kissing.
Public Opinion
A survey among Greek MPs, conducted in 2003 and presented by the Hellenic Homosexual Community (EOK), raised the issue of recognising taxation, inheritance and other legal rights to same-sex couples. The results of the survey showed that 41% of parliamentarians surveyed favored granting such rights while 55% were against it. Among PASOK MP's, 55% were favorable, compared to just 27% of New Democracy MPs. The party with the highest MP favorable responses was Synaspismos (67%) while the majority of Communist Party MPs abstained. MPs favorable responses were higher among women, younger and Athenian MPs.
A study among Greek students of the Schools of Health and Welfare professions (social work, nursing & medicine) in Iraklion, Crete published in 2006 surveyed their attitudes towards male homosexuality. Two scales were used and translated into Greek along with several questions that formed a self-completed questionnaire. The main findings showed that there were differences among the Schools surveyed in terms of homophobic expression and that "the main predictors influencing homophobia score were: willingness to defend and protect gay rights, conversations with gay individuals, religiosity, politicization and having gay friends".
A Eurobarometer survey published in December 2006 showed that 15% of Greeks surveyed supported same-sex marriage and 11% recognised same-sex couple's right to adopt. These figures were considerably below the 25-member European Union average of 44% and 32% respectively and placed Greece in the lowest ranks of the European Union along with Romania, Latvia, Poland, Cyprus, Malta and Bulgaria.
A Eurobarometer survey published in January 2007 ("Discrimination in the European Union"), showed that 77% of Greeks believed that being gay or lesbian in their country 'tends to be a disadvantage', while the European Union (EU25) average was 55%. 68% of Greeks agreed that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was 'widespread' in Greece (EU25: 50%), and 37% that it was more widespread in than 5 years before (EU25: 31%). 84% of Greeks also reported not having any gay or lesbian friends or acquaintances (EU25: 65%).
A Kapa Research (major Greek polling firm) survey on behalf of the Greek "Institute of Psychological & Sexual Health" published in the Greek newspaper Ta Nea on 20 September 2010 showed that 63.9% of Greeks agree with the legalization of same-sex partnerships and 24.1% disagree; as for the legalization of same-sex marriage, 38.5% of Greeks agree and 51.8% disagree.
No comments:
Post a Comment