Filenews 18 June 2024 - by Marilena Panayi
Enclaved in national legislation are same-sex Cypriot couples who have married abroad and return to Cyprus with or without their children.
The Republic of Cyprus does not recognize either their marriage or their family, so they are faced with a number of social and practical issues. The tragic thing, as representatives of Accept – LGBTQI reported yesterday in Parliament, is that, when it comes to same-sex couples of other nationalities, the Republic of Cyprus recognizes both their marriage and children on the basis of European recommendations.
''If we have Cypriot citizenship our case is dealt with on the basis of Cypriot law, if the citizenship is not Cypriot, then marriage and family is recognized through the Yellow Slip and there things are easier," a member of Accept-LGBTQI, which has married another Cypriot national abroad, said during a meeting of the parliamentary committee on Human Rights.
At the same time, he added, "we have a problem with the recognition of our children. If I, for example, who am the biological mother dies, then the other mother (wife) cannot claim the children because she is not recognized as their mother and this is the case for all matters concerning our children. In fact, we are not recognized for anything and our rights as citizens are actually being trampled underfoot."
Civil unions, as explained, "have no legal force with regard to children and other matters in other countries, and this applies to both same-sex and different-sex couples. There is a case of a Greek who entered into a civil partnership contract with a Cypriot and when he went to Greece to settle some administrative cases he learned that the Cypriot civil partnership agreement is not valid in Greece, because in Greece it is a civil partnership which is something different and because each country regulates this issue with its own criteria the problem is general.
Members of the parliamentary committee also pointed out the fact that "in the case of same-sex couples involving women, the children are recognized as children of the couple's biological mother/member. In the case of men, the problem is even bigger."
A solution to these problems, the participants of the meeting noted, can be provided by the recognition of civil same-sex marriage in Cyprus, "because now the gaps that exist in the recognition of same-sex families are transferred to education and generally to the issuance of various official documents, and practical problems are created, in addition to the social ones that already exist. when they shouldn't exist."
The representatives of Accept – LGBTIQ also referred to the racism and hate speech that members of the LGBTQI community continue to experience in Cyprus. Special reference was made to communities in the free area of Famagusta and in the district of Larnaka where racist incidents are often recorded. An example was given of the case of a transgender woman, who is attacked almost daily by certain groups of residents of her area. As reported by representatives of Accept, "she is being attacked both inside and outside her home. They beat her and insulted her and now they did graffiti outside her house and wrote 'you are trans to die' and stuff like that." "Racism and hate speech exist in general," a Accept spokesperson said. "I myself had posted videos of the pride parade on the internet and you can't understand what swear words and what else people were writing to me in their comments," he said.
The remarks made by the deputies-members of the committee were intense, while the representative of the Ministry of Justice was asked to comment on the actions of the state on issues related to informing citizens, informing children about both same-sex families and issues that concern the LGBTQI community in general. As he said, the procedures for the elaboration of a national strategy have been promoted, noting that as estimated the strategy will be ready by the end of 2024.
At the beginning of the meeting, the chair of the committee reiterated the findings of a recent European survey which showed that seven out of 10 Cypriots hide their sexual orientation, while 71% avoid highlighting their relationship in public. The corresponding figure in the EU is 53%.
