GayLawNet^®

National

Consensual sex between same-sex couples is lawful at aged seventeen (17). The legal age of consent for sexual activity between opposite sex couples is fifteen (15) years [R1.1].

‘Sodomy’, Article 347 of the Greek Penal Code

b) Sodomy committed by an adult through the seduction of a person under seventeen (17) years of age, or for financial gain, shall be punished with imprisonment of at least three (3) months.

The criminal prosecution is exercised ex officio.'

National

In March 2008, the government decided not to deport a 40-year-old man back to Iran, where he was arrested, beaten and tortured in his home country because he is gay [R1].

National

In 2005, discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation was made unlawful [R1.1].

Courts & Tribunals:

In July 2008, a Greek court ruled that a gay rights group can use the word lesbian in its name, stating that the people from the island of Lesbos do not have sole claim to the word [R2.1].

National:

In 1951, consensual sex between same-sex couples was decriminalised [R1.1].

National

In June 2008, two same-sex Greek couples, one gay and one lesbian, were married in the first civil ceremonies of their kind in Greece, on the isle of Tilos [R1.1].

See: Courts & Tribunals [R2.1] below.

In April 2008, the Greek Ministry of Justice reportedly agreed to establish a working group to analyse the potential impact of recognising same-sex civil marriages in Greece [R1.2].

In March 2008, gay and lesbian organizations discovered that a 1982 law on civil wedding ceremonies did not explicitly state marriage was between a man and woman but rather between two "persons" [R1.1].

In July 2005, the National Human Rights Committee recommended the creation of a civil unions registry for same-sex couples and the leader of the Synaspismos Coalition leftist party reportedly promised to support same-sex marriage [R1.3].

Courts & Tribunals

In May 2009, the court ruled that two gay marriages performed on the island of Tilos are invalid [R2.1].

In October 2008, the case of two same-sex couples who took advantage of a loophole in Greek law and got married on the island of Tilos will be heard by a Greek court [R2.2].

National:

Homosexuality is banned among officers in the Greek armed forces [R1].

If an officer is found to be homosexual he or she is forced to resign his commission. Conscripts may be exempted if they are gay, although they may insist on serving [R1].

Courts & Tribunals:

In July 1999, the Defence Ministry was ordered by the Council of Europe to pay damages to a Greek Cypriot homosexual whose rights were violated by the law outlawing homosexuality between consenting male adults which was amended in May 1998 [R2.1].