Gay Star News reports:
Greece’s Democratic Left party has introduced an amendment that would see the country’s civil unions scheme for heterosexual couples who do not wish to marry extended to same-sex couples in line with a European Court of Human Rights ruling. In early November the court ordered Greece to allow same-sex couples access to the scheme by which the country has recognized the property rights of co-habiting committed opposite-sex couples since 2008… The Democratic Left amendment notes that Article 4 of the Greek Constitution states that all citizens are equal before the law and that ‘as the National Commission of Human Rights has emphasized, the exclusion of the cohabitation agreement of same-sex couples is discriminatory against them.’
Let’s unpack this a little. First off, as Gay Star News notes in the article, the Democratic Left is a small opposition party, so this may go nowhere. And second, “all citizens are equal before the law” – seriously? Then why not open up marriage to gays and lesbians instead of civil unions?