Parliament called to legislate for the protection of children's interests

A new question of constitutionality for the recognition of children in a homosexual couple. This time it was the Court of Lucca that suspended the judgement and forwarded the acts to the Consulta for a judgement on the legitimacy of the issue. This is only the latest case, in chronological order. Within the Italian legislative panorama, in fact, 'there is no law that regulates and protects the parenthood of a homosexual couple and this has important repercussions on the children, especially in the event of the death of the biological parent or the couple's conflictual separation; furthermore, adoption in particular cases is proving to be a totally inadequate institution and detrimental to the dignity of parental figures because the courts have practically introduced investigations even on their 'morality'', stresses lawyer Maria Grazia Sangalli, former president of the Lenford Network. In Italy, in fact, only the biological parent is recognised, while the elective parent does not legally exist. Despite the fact that the Constitutional Court has recognised that the desire to have children is an expression of the 'fundamental and general freedom of self-determination' of any human being, the recognition of the non-biological parent is not automatic for the children of homogenous couples. Since the beginning of last year, the public prosecutor's offices of several Italian cities have requested the annulment of the recognition of children of same-sex couples after the Ministry of the Interior issued a circular asking mayors not to automatically transcribe the birth certificates of children born to same-sex couples in which the name of the non-biological parent also appeared. In the event of annulment, the only way for the non-biological parent to have his or her role recognised is through stepchild adoption, i.e. the adoption of children in special cases. Already in January 2021, the Constitutional Court had issued a ruling on the recognition of same-sex families, stating that "the child's interest is to obtain recognition, including legal recognition, of the ties that in fact already unite him or her with both members of the couple, obviously without this having any implications with regard to the possible legal relationship between the child and the surrogate mother" and asking the Italian Parliament to legislate on the matter, so as to protect the interests of minors. In 2024, however, there is still no law on the subject.