From marriage to child recognition, the rights that the LGBT+ community fights for

The history of LGBT+ rights in Italy is still a history of absences and voids. No egalitarian marriages, no law regulating the recognition of children of same-sex couples, no specific protection against hate crimes. "From a cultural point of view, the provision of an ad hoc institute such as the civil union produces the idea that same-sex couples have fewer rights and less dignity," explains lawyer and activist Cathy La Torre, "but the real great inequality compared to marriage lies in the fact that the institute does not contemplate parenthood.

A sore point. "A child born of a couple united civilly is not automatically the child of that couple, it has to go before a court," La Torre points out. "There is a regulatory vacuum that has never been filled, despite the fact that both the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court have intervened several times in asking the legislator to regulate the children born to these couples. Consequently, the daughter or son born to a couple of two mothers or two fathers will have one biological parent who will be immediately registered at the registry office. The other, with whom the parental project was born, will instead have to apply to a court for adoption in special cases, pursuant to Article 44 of Law 184/1983, which provides for the possibility of adopting the partner's son or daughter. Therein lies the anomaly, and the hypocrisy. Because they are already children of that couple'.

For the lawyer, a reality bath is needed: 'These children exist, the state must provide them with protection. Things get more complicated for fathers who resort abroad to gestation for others. 'I don't want to talk about what is strictly forbidden by law in Italy,' says La Torre, 'and I don't think this country has a law on GPA among its priorities'. A practice that, he recalls, is resorted to by '90% sterile heterosexual couples'. More opportune would be to reform the law on adoption 'to allow singles and all couples, without distinction, heterosexual or homosexual, cohabiting or married, to adopt, because in Italy there are about 13,500 children in family homes waiting for fostering'.

Similarly, 'we have a need to extend the Mancino law, according to which when a person is beaten, assaulted or discriminated against on the basis of his religion or origin, thus when the motive is ethnic, racial or religious, the penalty for that crime is increased. But only those groups of people deserve increased protection?". The right path, for La Torre, is to widen it sharply: 'I do not like the compartmentalisation of diversity. I would like a law that stipulates that anyone who is attacked for a personal characteristic, including a non-compliant body, is better protected by the state'.

Along with the shortcomings, there are the struggles around words. In May, the Italian government's decision not to sign, along with eight other countries, the declaration for the promotion of European policies in favour of the LGBT+ community presented by the Belgian presidency caused debate. 'We are in favour of inclusion and against transphobia,' clarified Minister Eugenia Roccella, 'but that document speaks of "gender expression"'. And in front of the possibility of legitimising the external communication of the self-perceived gender, Meloni stopped in defence of 'sexual binarism': 'Here they are trying to deny biology,' Roccella commented, 'the male and female identity that has produced so many injustices in the world, particularly to the detriment of women.