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05/31/08-06/02/08

Prosecutor Moves to Block First Gay Marriage in Greece

Greece's top public prosecutor on Friday moved to block the country's first gay marriage after a mayor on a tiny Greek island said he was willing to perform the civil ceremony. Supreme court prosecutor Giorgos Sanidas intervened to stop a ceremony expected to take place this summer on the east Aegean Sea island of Tilos -- declaring same-sex marriages illegal.

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.

No date has been set for the service. Greek civil ceremonies are conducted by municipal officials.

Gay groups in Greece were angered after the conservative government left gays out of plans to create civil partnerships that would improve financial rights for unmarried couples

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

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

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.

Justice minister Sotiris Hatzigakis also said he believes gay marriages could not take place. ''This is not possible. It would not be legal,'' he told state-run NET television.''

Greece's influential Orthodox Church has expressed strong objections to gay marriage in the past. (AP)

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