It has been 22 years since the Dutch parliament introduced civil marriage for same-sex couples by a majority vote of more than 70% of the members of its two bodies. From that day to the present, it has been recognized by 18 other European countries: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Luxembourg, Malta, Great Britain, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden. and Finland. The same group includes another 15 countries (Canada, USA, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Uruguay, Chile, South Africa, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand).

Greece is not among the 19 countries in Europe, nor among the 34 countries in the world that have established civil marriage for same-sex couples. Our country recognized in December 2015 by force (literally, after the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Vallianatos et al. v. Greece, November 2013) simply the possibility of concluding a cohabitation agreement between same-sex couples.

In other words, our country is lagging behind in terms of personal freedoms, personal autonomy, equality and, ultimately, the quality of the rule of law. It’s a shame that the country that was at the forefront with family law reforms in 1983 and 2002 is today an institutional hindsight.

Equal enjoyment of the fundamental right and equal treatment is not a matter of the majority, but the basis of the full rule of law.

One of the reasons for the delay is the fear that recognition of the marriage would lead, necessarily on grounds of equal treatment, to the right of joint paternity (equal paternity). This fear dooms children who are already growing up with same-sex parents to non-legal recognition of their only true parent. It is based, moreover, on the erroneous reasoning that, from the point of view of the law, having a child with two parents is worse than having only one mother if the second parent is also a woman, or than having only one father if the other parent is also a man. . But decades of international experience and the results of numerous studies have proven that children need love and care, and that a same-sex couple can protect the interests of children that they have or will have, no less than a traditional heterosexual couple. . In both cases, children will have similar social and emotional adjustments. The same sex of parents does not have any negative impact on their social development, their skills, their intelligence, their self-confidence, their performance in school or in higher education. They will live normal lives in the same family conditions as children from traditional marriages. And, in any case, if there is any discriminatory treatment, it will be no more than the non-recognition of their second parent that already exists today, this will be due to external factors that must be eliminated through institutional interventions and social empathy. , as was done with the corresponding, several decades ago, for children of divorced parents.

From 2006 until today, we have been writing in the press and supporting in our scientific articles the need to introduce (political) same-sex marriage and co-parenting in Greece, i.e. recognition of two parents of the same sex of the resulting child natural or assisted reproduction with medical assistance, or joint birth of a child, or one partner of the child of the other. Over the years, the opinions of Greek men and women have changed dramatically. According to the annual diaNEOSIS poll, for the first time in 2022, a majority of Greeks (51.7%) believe that same-sex marriage should be allowed (against 41.9%), while the percentage of those opposed to same-sex couples has fallen. in 2022 to 57%, although in 2016, according to a survey by the Avgi newspaper, 85% of our fellow citizens had a negative attitude towards him. After all, equal enjoyment of one of the fundamental rights and equal treatment is not a matter of the majority, but the basis of an integral rule of law.

Society has moved quickly and has outgrown a political system that now has no excuse for holding the country back instead of pushing it forward. Although there is no doubt that this right will be recognized sooner or later, every passing day is costly for thousands of our fellow citizens, who remain second-class citizens. The SYRIZA government missed a great opportunity in December 2015. The current government has the opportunity to do so now, before Greece embarks on an electoral gamble that will send such urgent and vital issues onto the Greek calendar. This is a unique opportunity for genuinely liberal reform that touches on fundamental human rights and finally enshrines equality in dignity without gender exclusion.

Ms. Lina Papadopoulou is Professor of Constitutional Law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and Mr. Aristides Hatzis is Professor of Theory of Law and Institutions at the National and Kapodistrian Universities in Athens.