Source: Deutsche Welle, New York Times, BBC News, AFP
Defying threats of prosecution, the mayor of a remote Greek island performed the country’s first same-sex marriage on Tuesday.

Tilos Mayor Tasos Aliferis performed the early morning civil ceremony between two men before hundreds of witnesses, including members of the country's gay and lesbian community, journalists and Tilos residents, Deutsche Welle reports.

Another ceremony was also held for two women, both BBC and New York Times report.

The civil ceremonies, held at sunrise in the nondescript town hall of Tilos, a tiny island in the eastern Aegean Sea, defied statements by a senior Greek prosecutor last week that such unions were illegal.

Supreme Court Prosecutor Giorgos Sanides issued a directive Friday stating that any marriage between same-sex couples will be "automatically annulled and considered illegal."

Sanides said the decree was founded in the spirit of the constitution that defines marriage as matrimony between a man and a woman with the intent of forming a family.

Aliferis, a Socialist foe of the ruling conservative government, insisted, according to the New York Times that the investigation will not go far. "There is no court in Europe that will side by this arcane reading of the constitution," he said. "What happens if a couple can not reproduce and have a family? Is their marriage null and void?"

"It's done, now," Aliferis said in a telephone interview with New York Times after the ceremonies. "The unions have been registered and the licenses have been issued. It’s a historic moment."

Greek Justice Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis quickly declared the marriages "non-existent" and accused the Aliferis of "arbitrarily" overstepping his authority.

"There is no legal framework for the holding of same-sex weddings in Greece," Hatzigakis said in a statement quoted by AFP.

A prosecutor on the nearby island of Rhodes, which has judicial jurisdiction over Tilos, ordered an investigation into whether grounds existed for charging Aliferis with the offence of overstepping his authority, Deutsche Welle reports.

But Greece's main LGBT association OLKE pledged to fight back.

Gay activists have warned that they may now begin to sue any of the country’s municipalities if civil authorities resist requests for similar sax-sex unions.

"A step forward for equality has been taken... We're going to fight for the recognition of our rights," said Evangelia Vlami, 47, a prominent OLKE member who was one of the newlyweds on Tuesday.

Described by BBC News as "bubbling with excitement," she married a woman of similar age, who was not identified.

The other newlywed to be named is another longtime gay activist, Dimitris Tsabrounis, who married a 25-year-old man.

"From this day, discrimination against gays in Greece is on the decline. We did this to encourage other gay people to take a stand," Vlami said after the sunrise ceremony.

OLKE said earlier this year that it had discovered a loophole in a 26-year-old civil marriage law that would allow gays to marry legally.

The group pointed out that a 1982 law legalizing weddings and civil ceremonies refers only to participating "persons," without specifying gender.

Theofanou Papzisi, a law professor at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, told Deutsche Welle that the "civil marriage law does not specify gender, thus no one can be breaking the law if such marriage ceremonies are performed."

With its abundance of glamorous gay bars and summer island resorts such as Mykonos, Greece has long drawn thousands of gay tourists annually. But gays and lesbians in this European Union nation of 11 million people frequently complain of discrimination. Public displays of affection are widely frowned upon.

The country’s military bars gays from joining its ranks, and in 1993 a private Greek television network, Mega Channel, was fined $116,000 by the National Radio and Television Council for showing men kissing in a weekly drama. Greece’s powerful Orthodox Church has also denounced homosexuality as a sin and “defect of human nature.”

The Justice Ministry recently introduced civil partnership legislation granting legal rights to unmarried couples, but gays are not included in the law.

The Greek Orthodox Church is staunchly opposed to granting gays legal rights and accepting common law marriages.    

Full article: Greek Island Mayor Performs Country's First Gay Weddings | Deutsche Welle
First Same-Sex Weddings in Greece | New York Times
Greece sees first gay 'marriage'  | BBC News
First Greek gay marriages spark judicial battle | AFP