Evangelia Vlami (L), the first woman to marry another woman in Greece, and Dimitris Tsabounis, who married a man.
The tiny island of Tilos in the Greek Aegean Sea made headlines earlier this week when its mayor, Anastassios Aliferis, performed the country's first same-sex civil unions.
Since wedding two men and two women at sunrise on Tuesday, in full knowledge that such unions had been called illegal by a senior Greek prosecutor, Mayor Aliferis has been charged with breaching his duty.
“It’s done, now,” Mayor Aliferis has been reported saying. “The unions have been registered and the licenses have been issued. It’s a historic moment.”
He's right: Greece may be world famous for fine gay traditions like Sappho, Lesbos and Mykonos, but it remains rather shamefully behind the rest of Western Europe for LGBT anti-discrimination laws -- this is a much-needed step that we all celebrate!
