My initial title was “a big day for LGBT rights in Greece”, but people should be smart enough to realize that we are actually talking about HUMAN rights. So here is what happened: On the 23rd of December Greece FINALLY voted the bill allowing same-sex couples to enter into cohabitation agreement. Yay! It was about time.

Maybe now Greek society will start to wake up and realize that same sex couples and families with transgender members are just that, families. Surely, this only one baby step and many more need to be take. The right to marry and the right to adopt children should follow in my humble opinion. As a friend pointed out in his facebook status, after dealing with matters of death (that’s basically what the cohabitation agreement regulates: who gets to wave you goodbye as you die and who inherits your fortune), it’s time to acknowledge and regulate matters of life (marriage and children).

Many people claim to support the rights of gay families, but when it comes to children, they will be quick to say that the matter is complex. Of course it is! It is exactly as complex as it is for straight families. I fail to understand why a family -regardless of the gender of the parents- that fulfills certain criteria of safety, financial security and capacity to offer love, should be denied the chance to give a child a better future.

To fully disclose my opinion on the matter, I feel that as long as straight couples are allowed, encouraged and supported to pursue fertility treatments when unable to conceive naturally, the LGBT community should have the exact same rights. Yes, the planet suffers from over-populations and yes maybe having offspring in the first place is a selfish thing to do (that’s a very complex matter that I am not going to discuss here). But since straight couples have the right to do it, we should not judge LGBT couples using different standards.

I was planning to close this post with a love-related quote by Oscar Wilde, but I found an even better one, which actually explains why people get so angry when we talk about LGBT rights:

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
Oscar Wilde

(The pictures in this post are part of my little zine called “Families”. Just send me an e-mail if you want more info about it. Feel free to use them but link back here please.)