LGBTQ rights in Greece
, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer rights in Greece are among the most advanced in Europe, with the country consistently placing in top positions on LGBT rights classifications. Public opinion on homosexuality in Greece is generally regarded as culturally liberal, with civil partnerships being legally recognised since 2015 and same-sex marriage since 16 February 2024.
Both male and female types of same-sex sexual activity have been legal in Greece since 1951, and anti-discrimination laws in employment were enacted in 2005. Since then, anti-discrimination laws have been extended to other spheres, including gender identity. Hate speech and hate crime legislation is one of the most rigid and comprehensive in Europe. In 2015, civil unions were legalised for same-sex couples, making households headed by same-sex couples eligible for many of the legal protections and rights available to married opposite-sex couples. In 2017, transgender people were granted the right to have their gender identity recognized and to change their legal sex without having to undergo surgical alteration of their genitals in order to have key identity documents changed. In February 2018, a county court in Greece granted a non-binary person the right to a gender-neutral name. In May 2018, the Greek Parliament passed a law granting same-sex couples the right to foster care children. In February 2024, the Parliament made marriage and full adoption rights available to same-sex couples.
Gay culture is vibrant in the capital of Athens, particularly in the gay neighbourhood of Gazi, in Thessaloniki and some of the Greek islands. With Greece being one of Europe's most popular LGBT tourist destinations, many establishments catering for the LGBT community can be found in islands such as Mykonos, which is known worldwide for the gay and lesbian scene. There are four LGBT pride parades held annually, in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and Heraklion, the capital of the island of Crete. The largest of them, the Athens Pride, saw record participation in 2015, and the attendance of many public figures including the President of the Hellenic Parliament and the Mayor of Athens.
According to recent reports carried out by ILGA-Europe, which assesses LGBT rights in European countries, Greece achieved one of the highest improvements in the legal and policy situation of LGBT people in the last decade, with an overall score of 70%, while in 2025 Greece ranked 7th in Europe out of 49 countries in LGBT rights. In April 2025, Greece announced a new policy and introduced a bill to ban surrogacy contracts for gay men and single men. In May 2025 Greece's Supreme Court upheld same sex marriage.
Legality of same-sex sexual activity
Following the country's independence from the Ottoman Empire, the penal code of 1834 stipulated that anyone guilty of sodomy shall be punished with at least one year imprisonment and police surveillance.Male homosexual practice was decriminalized in 1951. Lesbians were not mentioned or acknowledged in the Greek Criminal Code. The Penal Code outlawed male prostitution and provided for a higher age of consent of 17 for male homosexual acts. However, this provision was abolished resulting in equalization of the age of consent and the legalization of male prostitution, subject to existing laws on the regulation of prostitution.
The age of consent in Greece is 15, In 2015, along with the legalization of same-sex civil unions, Article 347, which provided a further prohibition of seducing a male under 17 if the actor is a male adult, was repealed, therefore equalising the age of consent for homosexual acts.
Recognition of same-sex relationships
The Greek Constitution provides no definition of marriage. However, it does stipulate that, like motherhood and childhood, it must be under the protection of the State. In June 2025, the Greek Council of State upheld the February 2024 legislation on both marriage and adoption for same-sex couples by a majority vote of 21-6.The former New Democracy-led Government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis was opposed to same-sex marriage. While it had introduced legislation that offered several rights to unmarried couples, this explicitly excluded same-sex couples.
The National Human Rights Committee proposed a registry that would cover both same-sex couples and unmarried opposite-sex ones and the Greek group OLKE announced its intention to sue Greek municipalities that refused to marry same-sex couples.
The Greek Government under George Papandreou, leader of Panhellenic Socialist Movement, was preparing legislation for same-sex registered partnerships, which, however, never took place, as LGBT groups believed that they were going to be insufficient.
In November 2013, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of the plaintiffs in the case Valianatos and Others vs. Greece and condemned the exclusion of same-sex couples from the option to contract cohabitation agreements, a non-marital relationship registration scheme established in 2008 for opposite-sex couples. The restriction of cohabitation agreements solely to opposite-sex couples was thus deemed non-convincing and the state was obliged to give a 5,000 euro compensation to each one of the plaintiffs.
Although there was no official recognition of same-sex couples at that time, a 1982 law that legalized civil marriage between "persons", without specifying gender, acted as a test-case for same-sex marriage. On 3 June 2008, the Mayor of Tilos, Anastasios Aliferis, married two same-sex couples, two lesbians and two gay men, citing the legal loophole. He was heavily criticized by clergymen of the Church of Greece, which in the past had also opposed the introduction of civil marriage. Justice Minister Sotirios Hatzigakis declared the Tilos marriages "invalid" and Supreme Court prosecutor Georgios Sanidas warned Mayor Aliferis of the legal repercussions of his "breach of duty", but he said he had "no intention of annulling the marriages". In May 2009, the marriage was officially annulled by the authorities.
Ιn December 2015, the Greek Parliament reintroduced a law draft that would expand cohabitation agreements to same-sex couples Many members of the Greek Church condemned the proposition. Most notably, Archbishop Ieronymos called homosexuality "a diversion from life", metropolitan Anthimos declared that "Not even animals have such dispositions", metropolitan Seraphim said "Pawns of the international Zionism! The masculofeminine is being created!" whereas metropolitan Amvrosios stated "Spit on them! They're disgraceful! They're nature's abominations!" The latter, paired with Amvrosios' initiative to have the bells of the churches in his metropolis ring mournfully, stirred up much controversy, the result of which was a kiss-in protest by two LGBT activists dressed up in clergy clothes in front of the building of the Athens metropolis.
Finally, on 23 December, the draft concerning the enriched and improved cohabitation agreement legislation was passed with a significant absence of 51 MPs, making Greece the 26th European country to adopt same-sex recognition laws. The largest groups to oppose the cohabitation agreement bill were the Communist Party of Greece, Golden Dawn and the Greek Orthodox Church. Simultaneously, the anachronistic article 347, criminalizing acts of "unnatural lewdness" between men was abolished, equalizing the age of consent for sex between men. Furthermore, Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, while debating the law in Greek Parliament, issued an apology to the LGBT community for the years of discrimination they had faced.
In December 2016, the Greek Parliament passed a bill expanding the rights of same-sex couples and ensuring equal protection in workplaces regardless of gender, religion or sexual orientation.
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Greece since 15 February 2024.In 2018, the European Court of Justice ruled that married same-sex couples have the same residency rights as married opposite-sex couples under EU law, even if same-sex marriage is not legal in that particular EU member state. The ruling affects all EU countries, which are obliged to abide by it, including Greece.
On 17 June 2022, SYRIZA and its leader, the former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, submitted a historic draft bill promoting LGBT rights to the Greek Parliament. This draft bill legalises the same-sex marriages and the marriages may be both civil and religious, provided that the religion of the person permits it. It was rejected by the New Democracy majority.
In July 2023, the prime minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis, heading the recently re-elected New Democracy government, made an announcement to Greek media organisations that he "supports same-sex marriage and that Greek society is mature enough for same-sex marriage to be proposed by his government" and that "it will be implemented within this term of government".
On 15 February 2024, the New Democracy-led government proposed and passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriages with the backing of the opposition parties SYRIZA, PASOK, Course of Freedom and New Left despite opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church, thus, making Greece the first Orthodox Christian-majority country in the world to recognize same-sex marriages. Some of these opposition parties had proposed similar bills. Other non-parliamentary parties such as MeRA25 also supported the legalisation of same-sex marriages.
The first same-sex couples got married March 2024. The first overseas same-sex couple from Australia got married in Rhodes within the same month.
In May 2025, the Council of State ruled that civil marriage of same-sex couples and the right to adoption are in accordance with the Constitution, after rejecting relevant annulment applications.
Child adoption and foster care
In April 2025, Greece announced a new policy and introduced a bill to ban surrogacy contracts for gay men and single men.On 17 April 2018, a bill, titled the Child Adoption Law, aimed at overhauling and simplifying the country's child adoption legislation, which has been criticized in the past as being overly bureaucratic and ineffective and for its extremely slow procedures, was submitted to the Greek Parliament. The bill, and specifically Article 8, also grants same-sex couples the right to foster children. In a debate at a parliamentary committee, the bill's Article 8 was supported by the vast majority of the country's agencies, organizations, and experts, with the exception of the conservative Orthodox Church of Greece, which voiced its opposition to it. The bill as a whole, including Article 8, was voted "on principle" by the committee on early May 2018, with the support of Syriza, the Independent Greeks and The River. New Democracy, Democratic Alignment and the Union of Centrists abstained, whereas Golden Dawn voted against it, It was due for final ratification by Parliament. MPs from every political party of the Greek political spectrum expressed their support for Article 8 of the law, which concerns foster care for same-sex couples, with ND and DISI softening their initial hardline position towards it and announcing that any of their MPs are free to support the bill once it arrives at the parliamentary session for final ratification.
Eventually, the bill, including its Article 8, was ratified by the Greek Parliament on 9 May 2018, with 161 MPs voting in support and 103 against, making Greece the newest EU country, after Portugal in 2016, to legalize foster care for same-sex couples and the first country in Southeastern Europe to do so.
The 17 June 2022 draft bill submitted to the Greek Parliament by SYRIZA and its leader, the former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, grants recognition to both the Joint and stepchild adoption by same-sex couples, as well as the Altruistic surrogacy for all couples.