Saturday, March 18, 2023

Protest in Milan against Meloni's last attack to LGBTQ rights


Italy legalised same-sex civil unions in 2016 under a centre-left government. However, stiff resistance from Catholic and conservative groups meant that the law stopped short of granting adoption rights to same-sex couples as well.

In 2017, the Higher Regional Court of Trento, in northern Italy, ruled two gay men could be registered as parents to their twin boys, who were born in Canada with the help of a surrogate.

In 2018, Maria Silvia Fiengo and Francesca Pardi were among Italy's first same-sex couples to be registered as parents. The centre-left mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, took a progressive stance and allowed children born to parents of the same gender to be acknowledged in the absence of clear national legislation.

This week, however, what was then seen as a major victory for equality and acceptance by the LGBTQ community was reversed.

The Italian interior ministry has demanded that Milan’s city council stop registering children of same-sex parents under both parents' names, in the latest move of the far-right government to undermine the rights of LGBTQ people in the country, reigniting a debate around Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's conservative agenda.

Meloni, who leads the far-right Brothers of Italy party, made anti-LGBTQ rhetoric a cornerstone of her electoral campaign, promising to protect traditional values.

Children who are denied the right to have both parents recognised on their birth certificate are left in a legal limbo.

Thousands of people took to the streets in Milan in protest against moves by Italy's far-right government to restrict the rights of same-sex parents.


Milan's mayor Giuseppe Sala allowed same-sex parents to register their children



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