Veteran Greek footballer and Euro 2004 champion Vasilis Tsiartas posted a comment on his Facebook page regarding the law on gender change at the age of 15 causing an online uproar. “I hope the first sex changes to happen will be for the children of those who voted for this disgrace. Let’s see how proud they will be then”, he wrote on Tuesday, adding that the politicians should go on and legalise pedophilia to “complete the crime”.

Although there were many who agreed with his opinion, most were critical of them and the tone he used. The veteran footballer responded on Wednesday to some of the replies he received adopting a more accepting tone. “Everyone can have his or her preferences, either man or woman and I totally respect that. For me, however, only a man and a woman are a couple, the rest are simply together. No matter how many parades or marriages they perform, I will not accept it as normal. Of course, the fact that they want to have kids and display this in public goes beyond me. A person can do what they want at home. And all that ‘whoever disagrees is a racists’ and crap like that do not touch me. those Those who do not agree are racist and various such nonsense to go to tell them elsewhere. There is also a sense of dignity, apart from individual aesthetics. God created Adam and Eve. The rest was made up for consumption.”

The Greek parliamentary committees passed a law on Monday allowing 15-year-old teenagers to undergo sex reassignment surgery with their parents’ consent.