The hard-right leader aims to cement traditional values by cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights. Is this really what Italians want? asks One Billion Rising coordinator Luisa Rizzitelli
The hard-right leader aims to cement traditional values by cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights. Is this really what Italians want?he family may be the cultural bedrock of Italian society, but an entirely conservative and patriarchal idea of family is what our current leaders and the country’s most powerful institutions want to promote. Giorgia Meloni’s words are always carefully chosen: “a child needs a mum and a dad”, “there is only one type of family – the one formed by a man and a woman”.
Meloni rose to power with the support of some political moderates, who hoped that once in the job she would not actually challenge the gains that had been made by rights campaigners in recent years. These hopes were misguided.ordering the removal of non-biological parents from birth certificates, thus excluding thousands of LGBTQ+ parents from being legally declared as such.
Many of us hoped it would mark the beginning of a new era in Italy, but an ugly misstep came in 2021, when parliament failed to passthat would have criminalised hate offences against LGBTQ+ people. Minority rights remain strongly contested in Italy – not only by the right and the Vatican, which actively interferes on these matters, but also by part of the Catholic left, which plays a vital role in blocking progress.
Now, with a hard-right government in power, attacks on our rights have intensified. My acquaintances who are in same-sex families all share the same concern: that birth certificate and other bureaucratic changes will result in a new generalised social stigma, making their families’ lives harder.
But the overall picture is bleak. A bill introduced earlier this year by a Brothers of Italy politician, Maria Carolina Varchi, would, making it an offence punishable by large fines and prison sentences. The bill has passed through the chamber of deputies and is still before the senate justice committee. Surrogacy in Italy is already illegal, while IVF is only available for opposite-sex couples, which leaves many same-sex couples with little option but to go abroad.
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