A same-sex marriage that took place on the island of Tilos in 2008 has been declared ‘invalid’ by Greece’s Supreme Court, .
Themis Katsagiannis and Dimitris Tsambrounis got married nearly a decade ago. Their wedding ceremony was officiated by pro-LGBT+ mayor Tasos Aliferis—who also married a lesbian couple around the same time.
LGBT+ rights groups have a legal loophole in a 1982 law that doesn’t specify that civil weddings must be between a ‘man and a woman’.
Greek newspaper Ekathimerini that the court opposed the marriage under the Greek rule of law “which is considered to reflect the moral and social values and traditions of the Greek people, who do not support the legalisation of marriage for homosexual couples.”
It’s expected that Katsagiannis and Tsambrounis will take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Same-sex marriage is of the European Union, including Austria, Poland, and Croatia. Greece legalised civil unions for same-sex couples in 2015.
The European Court of Justice has recently the case of a couple who are attempting to have their marriage legally recognised in Romania. The result could have an impact on same-sex couples who are unable to legally wed across Europe.
