\n<\/p>\n
Fourteen countries have Orthodox Christian majorities. On February 15, Greece became the first of them to legalize same-sex civil marriage.<\/p>\n
A bipartisan majority of 176 members of parliament\u00a0approved the bill<\/a>\u00a0versus 76 nays, 46 absentees and two abstentions. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose government drafted the measure, called its passage \u201ca milestone for human rights, reflecting today\u2019s Greece\u2014a progressive, and democratic country, passionately committed to European values.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras disagreed. \u201cSame-sex marriage is not a human right \u2026 and it\u2019s not an international obligation for our country,\u201d he told parliament. \u201cChildren have a right to have parents from both sexes.\u201d<\/p>\n The main opposition to the bill came from the Orthodox Christian Church. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul)\u2014the\u00a0mother church<\/a>\u00a0of the faith\u00a0expressed its position<\/a> in January: \u201cMarriage is the union of man and woman under Christ \u2026 and the church does not accept the cohabitation of its members in any form other than marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitsotakis countered, \u201cI want to be clear: We are referring to choices made by the state and not religious convictions \u2026 Our democracy requires that there cannot be two classes of citizens and there certainly cannot be children of a lesser god.\u201d<\/p>\n