Greece has legalized same-sex unions; will other Orthodox nations follow suit soon?

Greece is the first country with a majority of Orthodox Christians to allow same-sex unions under civil law. It most likely will be the only one, at least in the near future.
Despite not having a single doctrinal authority like a pope, Eastern Orthodox leadership has unified against accepting same-sex couples in both civil and religious ceremonies. The general consensus in predominantly Orthodox nations has also been against it.

Still, there are hints of improvement. In recent years, two tiny, mostly Orthodox nations—Montenegro and Cyprus—as well as Greece (2015), which upgraded to this week’s recognition of full marital status, have permitted same-sex partnerships.

Orthodox nations moving toward the European Union may see an increase in civil unions. They are still taboo in Russia and the nations around it, which have clamped down on LGBTQ expression.

Here is a synopsis of Orthodox church viewpoints and public opinion worldwide, and then the situation in certain majority-Orthodox countries.

THE WORLD OF ORTHODOXY
Eastern Orthodoxy is an old church with intricate rites and a rigid hierarchy that is socially conservative. The majority of churches are divided into separate, autonomous groups that coexist and disagree while adhering to the same historical beliefs and rituals.

There are roughly 200 million Eastern Orthodox people worldwide, although the majority reside in Eastern Europe and the neighboring Asian countries. roughly half of them are in Russia. Orthodoxy, like other global religious organizations, has had to respond to demands for LGBTQ inclusiveness.

In 2016, a council comprising the majority of Orthodox churches said that marriage between a man and a woman was “the oldest institution of divine law” and that its members were prohibited from participating in same-sex relationships.

According to polls done in 2015 and 2016 by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think tank, Orthodox Christians overwhelmingly said that society should neither tolerate homosexuality or permit same-sex marriage in nations where they make up the majority.

Greek Orthodox had a rather tolerant attitude; half of them agreed that homosexuality should be tolerated, and a quarter supported same-sex unions. Greeks as a whole narrowly backed the marriage legislation in more recent surveys.

Greek law recognizes marriage as lawful in the civil sphere but does not mandate churches to conduct these ceremonies.

The “duality of genders and their complementarity are not social inventions but originate from God,” the Greek Orthodox leadership said in a united January opposition to the bill.

While acknowledging the church’s stance, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, “We are discussing the decisions of the Greek state, unrelated to theological beliefs.”

According to George Demacopoulos, head of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University in New York, civil partnerships could soon be legal in several Orthodox nations.

“I believe that all of the European Union’s member states will eventually legalize civil marriage,” Demacopoulos said. “I anticipate that the bishops’ assemblies in those nations will oppose the measure in some way, and depending on your location, that could delay it or not.”

Ukraine
Same-sex couples are not allowed to formally register their status in Ukraine.

The problem worsened in 2023 when a large number of LGBTQ individuals enlisted in Ukraine’s military. In order to create civil partnerships for same-sex couples and provide them some fundamental rights, such as compensation in the event that one of the partners is killed in combat, a measure was filed in Parliament that year.

The proposed bill was opposed by the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which is made up of the two competing Orthodox churches in Ukraine. They said that some foreign organizations are taking advantage of the country’s present fragility to impose unfavorable reforms.

The bill is still pending.

In 2023, a same-sex couple who wanted the same legal protections as married heterosexual couples was found to have had their rights infringed by Ukraine, according to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

With a number of religious minorities, the majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox.

Russia
President Vladimir Putin has established a strong partnership with the Russian Orthodox Church and made “traditional family values” a pillar of his administration in increasingly conservative Russia. He contrasts these values with Western “perversions.”

With the 2020 constitutional amendment that included a language stating that marriage is a union of a man and a woman, Putin essentially prohibited same-sex unions.

A regulation dubbed as the “gay propaganda” bill was passed by the Kremlin in 2013 and forbade the public encouragement of “nontraditional sexual relations” between adolescents.

In what rights activists saw as an effort to justify the conflict, Russian authorities intensified a campaign against the West’s alleged “degrading” moral effect after deploying soldiers into Ukraine in 2022.

Moscow’s patriarch Kirill has attacked LGBTQ rights. He is in charge of the biggest Orthodox flock in the world as the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. He portrayed his nation’s incursion into Ukraine as a spiritual battle against a liberal program that included “gay parades.”

The Supreme Court of Russia essentially banned LGBTQ activity in November by classifying the so-called LGBTQ “international movement” as an extremist organization and outlawing it inside the country.

According to a study conducted in 2021 by the Levada Center, Russia’s leading independent pollster, only 33% of Russians, down from previous years, fully or partially believe that homosexual men and women should have the same rights as heterosexuals.

BELARUS
Marriage is described as a “union between a man and a woman” under Belarus’s Family Code. Furthermore, discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation is not illegal.

Belarus decriminalized homosexuality in 1994, but supporters claim that despite this, the LGBTQ population still experiences significant stigma and a high suicide rate.

Human rights organizations document hundreds of instances in which the nation’s primary internal security agency, the KGB, has attempted to recruit homosexuals and threatened to expose them.

ALONG WITH MONTENEGRO
As part of their attempts to join the European Union, Serbia and Montenegro, two conservative Balkan countries heavily influenced by the Serbian Orthodox Church, have had varying degrees of success when it comes to tackling LGBTQ rights.

2020 saw the passage of a law in tiny Montenegro permitting same-sex relationships with fewer privileges than marriage. A comparable proposed bill was never put to a vote in parliament in Serbia.

Same-sex weddings have been opposed by the Serbian Orthodox Church, which has strong ties to the Russian church.

Notwithstanding the fact that Serbia has had an outspoken lesbian prime minister for years, President Aleksandar Vucic has said he would not approve legislation legalizing same-sex unions. Campaigners for legal partnerships have been active.

In Serbia, pride marches are either prohibited or conducted under strict security. Although same-sex relationships are legal in Montenegro, the 620,000 strong, mostly male population is nonetheless split on the matter.

MOLDOVA AND ROMANIA
Despite an increasing societal acceptance of LGBTQ persons, Romania is one of the few nations of the European Union that prohibits both civil unions and same-sex marriage.

The European Court of Human Rights declared in 2023 that Romania had not upheld the rights of same-sex couples since their partnerships were not recognized by the law.

LGBTQ activists in Romania are said to have been attacked at a nonviolent demonstration in early February outside the far-right AUR party’s headquarters in Bucharest.

A referendum on changing the constitutional definition of marriage from a union of spouses to a union between one man and one woman was conducted in Romania in 2018 with support from the Orthodox Church.

Rights activists called on Romanians to abstain from the ballot, which was unsuccessful because of low voter participation.

In the neighboring country of Moldova, which is not a member of the EU but is recognized as a candidate, same-sex partnerships and weddings are prohibited.

In both nations the Orthodox make up the vast majority.

Bulgaria
The majority of Bulgarians have a negative view of homosexuals and same-sex unions in particular. Traditional family structures that are patriarchal still prevail in the Balkan nation.

Last year, the European Court of Human Rights determined that Bulgaria’s refusal to formally recognize same-sex couples constituted a violation of European human rights law. Additionally, the court decided that Bulgaria must provide legal recognition to same-sex couples; however, Bulgaria has not indicated that it would carry out this ruling.

About 80% of Bulgarians are members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, whose leaders have denounced the ECHR verdict and urged the government to resist.

It is expressly forbidden under Bulgarian law to recognize same-sex unions. A two-thirds majority in parliament is needed for constitutional amendments on three separate votes. Such a situation appears unlikely.