Source: Advocate, Reuters via Boston Globe
ATHENS -- The top prosecutor in Greece has vowed to stop it, but the mayor of the Aegean island city of Tilos says he'll soon officiate at the wedding of at least one gay couple.

Couples who have found a legal loophole to hold the first gay weddings in Greece are determined to go ahead with the services despite the threats from prosecutors and the wrath of the powerful Orthodox church.

Supreme Court prosecutor Giorgos Sanidas intervened to stop a ceremony expected to take place this summer -- some reports say 'within 15 days' -- on east Aegean Sea island of Tilos. Sanidas declared same-sex marriages illegal.

"Neither civil law nor the country's constitution refer to gay marriages," Sanidas, said in a statement. "If the Tilos mayor proceeds, he will have committed the criminal act of breach of duty."

Tilos Mayor Tassos Alfieris on Thursday said he would carry out the ceremony for two gay men who took the first official step toward marriage by posting a wedding notice in a Greek newspaper.

According to Reuters, another couple is also expected to hold a ceremony. Greek civil ceremonies are conducted my municipal officials.

In March, a lesbian organization discovered a loophole in a 26-year-old law that does not specify gender in civil wedding. The two men on Tilos would be the first pair to test it.

The Greek Gay and Lesbian Community (OLKE) said the wedding would go ahead as planned but would not reveal details for fear the ceremony may be disrupted.

"We were sure the Greek state would resist and we are prepared for a legal fight," OLKE's Evangelia Vlami told Reuters. "The two couples will go ahead and marry within 15 days and these weddings will help end discrimination."

"We will go ahead despite the difficulties," Tilos mayor Tassos Aliferis told Reuters on Friday. "I still can't believe that someone would be prosecuted for defending human rights."

On Friday, Sanidas issued a directive stating that marriage between same-sex couples would be ''automatically nullified and considered illegal'', the Advocate reports. 

Sanidas said the directive -- forwarded to prosecutors on the island of Rhodes -- was based on an article in Greece's constitution to protect family rights that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Rhodes is the administrative capital for an island group that includes Tilos.

While many European Union countries have established legislation allowing gay marriage or "registered partnership" rights to same-sex couples, neither are allowed in Greece.

The Netherlands were the first EU country to offer full civil marriage rights to gay couples in 2001 and Belgium followed in 2003. Spain legalized gay marriage in 2005, despite fierce opposition from the Roman Catholic Church.

Greece, where the Orthodox church remains influential, has long preferred to turn a blind eye to homosexuality rather than acknowledge gay rights. The Orthodox church strongly opposes marriage between homosexuals.

"We view this phenomenon of homosexuality as an illness of the body," Metropolitan Bishop Chrisostomos told national NET TV. "The church can not accept the union of homosexuals."

Full article: Gay couples vow to wed in Greece despite opposition | Boston.com (Reuters)
Top Prosecutor Moves To Block First Gay Marriage In Greece By Island Mayor | Advocate