Same-sex families perceptions on (in)equality and legal frameworks in Greece

Abstract

In this paper, Greece is considered as a case study, a Balkan country-nation that holds strong values for sexuality and gender, yet voted for same-sex marriage at the end of 2024. In Greece, when policies attempt to legislate or regulate family relations that, on a theoretical level, question the hegemony of the biologically or genetically determined heteropatriarchal 'blood ties' (as same-sex families do in the social imaginary in Greece), a notable intensification of the essentialist attitudes towards kinship and parenthood is emerging. Those attitudes attempt to defend the dominance of 'traditional' and 'official' cultural conceptualisations of the family. The relationship between gender, parenthood, and kinship takes on socio-emotional standards rather than biological connotations, and becomes a field of conflict, negotiation, and multiple ways of kinship (Kantsa, 2015:370).

In 2024, 60% of the population supported same-sex marriage, whereas only 35.8% endorsed the right of same-sex couples to adopt. Society often does not accept gays and lesbians as parents. This can make them feel isolated and lonely in the future. Because kinship is tied to procreation, in the majority's opinion, pink families cannot be sexually productive and are set apart from the rest of humanity because they choose not to accept heteronormativity (Weston, 1991).

To inquire about the qualitative interaction between institutional change and social acceptance, the paper explores how same-sex families (gay and lesbian parents/couples) perceive societal reactions/acceptance of Law 4356/2015 on the extension of the Civil Partnership Act for same-sex couples; whether institutional changes of 2015 affected the societal reactions/acceptance (RQ1). Moreover, the paper further questions the terms under which the legal recognition of the same sex family and kinship is defined. Does law foresee the differentiated characteristics of queer kinship or normalise the queer forms of livelihood and kinship?