The same-sex marriage bill "seeks the equal treatment of all citizens," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday during a cabinet meeting including among other issues court reforms and a Strategic Plan for Greeks Abroad.
Speaking of the bill, which was presented in greater detail by State Minister Akis Skertsos, Mitsotakis said it focused "on protecting children of homosexual parents that already exist; these children must have the same rights as all other children."
Mitsotakis noted that the recognition of same-sex marriages already exists in 36 countries and 5 continents, "without this showing that it harmed social cohesion and government harmony." He also expressed appreciation that the reform was discussed in low tones by society without extremisms. All viewpoints were heard, including voices that had never been heard before, like those of same-sex parents "who can finally sleep peacefully at night, without the fear that if anything happens to them their child will not end up with the other parent but end up at an institution."
He also underlined that the government's bill, to be tabled in parliament, "does not change the current state for surrogate motherhood, does not fundamentally expand it to same-sex couples, and it excludes the terms 'Parent no. 1' and 'Parent no. 2'. And that is because I want to stress that Greece will not become a laboratory of policies that are only applied in very few countries of the world." The bill, he said, "adds rights to some without removing them from the many."