Protests in Italy as government restricts rights of same-sex parents
Italy legalized same-sex civil unions in 2016, but fell short of giving gay couples adoption rights.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Milan to protest moves by Italy’s new right-wing government to restrict people’s rights. same-sex parents.
“You explain to my son that I am not his mother,” said one hoisted in a sea of rainbow flags filling one of the northern city’s central squares on Saturday. I read the billboard.
Italy legalizes same-sex marriage In 2016, however, opposition from catholic church This means that it did not go as far as giving gay couples adoption rights.
Some local governments decided to act unilaterally, but instead, decisions were made by courts on a case-by-case basis in legal actions taken by parents.
Milan had registered children of same-sex couples conceived abroad through surrogacy, which is illegal in Italy, or through medically assisted reproduction, which is only available to heterosexual couples.
But centre-left Mayor Beppe Sala said this week that those registrations had stopped after the interior ministry sent a letter to the court asking for a decision.
“It’s a clear setback from a political and social point of view and I put myself in the shoes of my parents who thought they could count on this possibility at Milan,” he said on the podcast, fighting change. I promised
Fabrizio Marazzo of the Gay Party said about 20 children were waiting to be registered in Milan and denounced the change as “unfair and discriminatory”.
A mother or father who is not legally recognized as a child’s parent may face major bureaucratic problems, such as the risk of losing the child if the registered parent dies or the marital relationship breaks down. I have.
The newly elected leader of the center-left Democratic Party, Ellie Shrine, was one of the opposition politicians who took part in Saturday’s protests, where many campaigners opposed the new government.
Prime Minister Giorgia MeloniThe far-right Brotherhood of Italy, which won first place in September’s elections, emphasizes traditional family values.
“Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby!” she said in a speech last year before being elected leader of the right-wing coalition. Matteo Salvinianti-immigrant alliance.
Earlier this week, a Senate committee voted against an EU plan that would require member states to recognize same-sex parental rights granted elsewhere in the bloc.