From criminal law to partnership
First banned, then recognised: Cyprus introduces civil partnership, including for same-sex couples.
On 9 December 2015, a law that many had long been waiting for appears in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cyprus. With its publication, civil partnership takes effect immediately. For the first time, same-sex couples on the island can secure their relationship legally.
The road there was rocky. Until 1998, a section from the British colonial era threatened sex between men with prison. The architect Alecos Modinos refused to accept this. He took his case all the way to Strasbourg, and in 1993 the European Court of Human Rights ruled in his favour: the ban violated his right to a private life. Even so, parliament took five years. Only when the Council of Europe threatened sanctions did it delete the section, a few days before the final deadline expired.
All the more remarkable is what happened next. A young movement brought the first Pride to Nicosia in 2014, and the parties came under pressure to act. The Orthodox Church openly campaigned against the plan, and the archbishop demanded an unequivocal condemnation of homosexuality. Nevertheless, at the end of November 2015 parliament approved the law clearly, by thirty-nine votes to twelve.
The law is deliberately neutral in its wording. The partnership is open to same-sex and different-sex couples alike and brings many of the rights of marriage, for example in tax, property or in hospital. Adoption, however, remains excluded. The first couple to register, in January 2016, were two women.
Today it is mainly heterosexual couples who use the new institution. For queer people, however, 9 December marks a turning point. In less than twenty years, a criminal offence became a state-recognised partnership. And the debate about marriage equality has long since begun on the island.