Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis has revealed what the government’s proposed bill on legalising same-sex marriage in Greece will entail.
According to Ekathimerini, the bill legalising same-sex marriage will extend parental rights to couples, however it will not allow for medically assisted reproduction through a surrogate mother.
“Already 20 countries in Europe have legislated marriage equality, we are not reinventing the wheel,” Mitsotakis told ERT.
He shared that the draft legislation will promise children have equal rights to those in heterosexual households.
“Same-sex couples already have children, but they don’t have equal rights. If the mother dies, for example, her partner has no legal right to the child,” Mitsotakis added.
Although Mitsotakis did not share when the bill will be tabled, he revealed the public consultation “will not last long.” He also stated that he won’t be requesting party discipline during the vote.
He then elaborated on how the governments’ proposal differs from that of Greece’s opposition party, SYRIZA, who revealed its own legislative proposal for same-sex marriage on Monday.
In SYRIZA’s proposal, rights are included for medically assisted reproduction.
“This concept of women being turned into baby-making machines on demand – as the leader of the opposition [Stefanos Kasselakis] said, ‘I want a boy and I don’t care who gives birth to him’ – that’s not going to happen. I want to be absolutely clear, so we are not doing anything in assisted reproduction. We are not changing anything,” Mitsotakis said.
Source: Ekathimerini.
