Greek mayor could face jail over first gay wedding

By Paul Anast in Athens
Last Updated: 8:53AM BST 04/06/2008
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The mayor of a tiny Aegean Sea island faces prosecution after conducting Greece's first same-sex weddings.

Tasos Aliferis, the mayor of Tilos, held the civil ceremonies for two Greek gay and lesbian couples shortly after dawn.

The ceremonies were hailed as a step forward by campaigners in Greece, but provoked the wrath of conservative church officials and senior politicians.

One of the women involved in the civil ceremony, Evangelia Vlami, said: "From this day, discrimination against gays in Greece is on the decline. We did this to encourage other gay people to take a stand".

But Sotiris Hajigakis, the Minister of Justice, immediately declared the nuptials "illegal and invalid" and a prosecutor on the nearby island of Rhodes charged the mayor with breach of duty – which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence.

Mayor Aliferis defended the ceremonies, saying he had exploited a loophole in the law.

"I consulted the Greek civil code and the constitution and verified that there is no law against same-sex marriages," he said.

"The laws on marriage simply do not specify any genders. To me, therefore, if something is not banned by law it is not illegal."

Members of the country's powerful Orthodox Church expressed strong objections to same-sex unions.
"Who can guarantee that in the future we will not see a wedding between a man and his dog?" wrote the bishop of Kalavryta and Aigialeia in his internet blog.

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