By Yannis Anifantis

The strong reaction of both the bodies and the members of the Greek delegation was caused by homophobic reports of the Greek Solution state parliamentarian, Pavlou Sarakis, during the meeting of the co-competent committees for the same-sex marriage bill.

The atmosphere began to electrify in the early afternoon, during the second meeting of the co-competent committees, where the non-parliamentary bodies had been invited in order to place themselves on the bill, with the member of the Hellenic Solution to repeatedly ask the bodies of the LGBTI community to explain to him “what’s the Q what’s the T, the K the I and the +” of the LGBTQ+ acronym.

The President of the Transgender Support Association took up the gauntlet, Anna Apergi, who called him not to express yourself with hate speech and racist speech inside the Parliament, stressing that “we are abused outside, inside the Greek parliament we will not be abused”. “It is impermissible to allow and allow attacks and targeting of parliamentarians elected by Greek society to be applauded. There will be no gay pride here.” argued P. Sarakis in a strong tone, after the applause gathered by the intervention of Ms. Strike.

However, the tension continued during the next meeting, with Pavlos Sarakis from the floor of the Senate Hall, making another statement about the symbol (+) in the acronym LGBTQ+, with him arguing: “Maybe this (+) that this community invokes and always accompanies their naming, is not just a symbol but a numerical symbol of adding new sexual definitions and orientations that will be added in the future for example for people who are attracted to animals. Animal riding. For those people who are attracted to small children. Pedophilia. From people who are attracted to objects. And from other, that is, perverse paranoid attractions”. His reference to the terms pedophilia and animal cruelty caused a strong reaction in the seats, with the rapporteur of SYRIZA, Elena Akrita to take the floor, arguing that “This cannot be heard in a marriage equality committee” and the chairman Lazaros Tzavdaridis to emphasize that “everyone is responsible for what they say”. “Mr. President, the matter is not simple. It is clearly abusive speech,” replied the SYRIZA member of parliament, with Pavlos Sarakis calling on her to explain what the symbol in the acronym means.