Church bells in western Greece were tolling mournfully on the aftermath of the Greek Parliament passing legal recognition of gender identity.

The law allows for people over 15 years of age to legally change their gender on every official document with a court ruling, abolishing the requirement of previous medical or psychological evaluation, surgery or sterilisation.

The law aligned Greece with the EU legislation and came after a series of Greek courts had already ruled in favour of people changing their documents without surgery, setting a legal precedent. The law passed by a sweeping majority of parliamentarians, despite the fact that the Independent Greeks Party, Syriza’s partner in government, sidelined with the opposition, Nea Dimokratia, Golden Dawn and the Communist Party, which voted against it. Centrist party To Potami offered support to the Government, while the socialist party, PASOK chose to abstain.

Greece gained praise by human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, which acknowledged that this was a big step for the transgender population of the country, but the law was met with furore by the Greek Orthodox Church, which had led the debate against it for the past few weeks.

On Monday, Bishop Amvrosios, a vocal supporter of Nazi party Golden Dawn, led a protest against it. As the head of the Orthodox Diocese of Kalavryta and Egialia in Western Greece, he ordered the vast regions’ churches to ring their bells mournfully, as in the case of funerals, for three minutes every day for a week in protest.

On Monday, Skai TV showed a banner on the facade of a church in the city of Egio reading “Christian morals have been murdered” as church bells rang in mourning.