[ Rightwing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has demanded local
councils register only biological parents on birth certificates,
leaving partners in legal limbo. The European parliament called on the
Italian government to reconsider its stance.]
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‘ORPHANED BY DECREE’: ITALY’S SAME-SEX PARENTS REACT TO LOSING
THEIR RIGHTS  
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Ashifa Kassam
August 21, 2023
The Guardian
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_ Rightwing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has demanded local councils
register only biological parents on birth certificates, leaving
partners in legal limbo. The European parliament called on the Italian
government to reconsider its stance. _

People protest in March 2023 after Italy's rightwing government told
Milan's city council to stop registering same-sex parents' children.,
Photograph: Claudia Greco/Reuters // The Guardian

 

Whether

it is school runs or doctors’ visits, Maria Silvia Fiengo and
Francesca Pardi have always shared in the raising of their four
children. But in recent months – after Italy’s rightwing
government began cracking down on the listing of same-sex parents on
birth certificates – the life they have forged together has been
thrust into uncertainty.

“We’re a bit worried. You never know what is going to happen,”
said Fiengo. “Our children have had two parents from the very first
moment they were dreamed of and brought into the world. But we’re
not protected by any law.”

Following the birth of their children, she and Pardi spent years
battling for legal recognition, butting up constantly against the
absence of a national law setting out parental rights for same-sex
couples. In 2018, the city council of Milan offered up a lifeline,
telling them it would begin listing parents of the same gender on
their children’s birth certificates.

“It was really beautiful,” said Fiengo. “It gave us strength,
our family felt more secure.”
 

Children of LGBT couples draw during a protest in Milan.
 (Photograph: Claudia Greco/Reuters  //  The Guardian)
 

Across the country, a handful of councils were quietly doing the same,
transforming the lives of same-sex parents. Their elation, however,
was shortlived. This year the Italian government, led by Giorgia
Meloni – a hardline traditionalist who has long reiterated
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view that a child should only be raised by heterosexual parents –
began demanding that councils register only the biological parent. 

The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, said he had little choice but to
comply. In the northern city of Padua, the state prosecutor went
further, demanding 
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the 33 birth certificates issued to the children of lesbian couples be
changed to remove the name of the non-biological mother. A court is
expected to rule on the request later this year.

As rights campaigners warned that the move had plunged
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of families in Italy into legal limbo, protests sprung up across
Italy
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world
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opposition politicians slammed the move. “These children are being
orphaned by decree,” said Alessandro Zan, a gay politician with the
Democratic party. “This is a cruel, inhumane decision.”

The European parliament called
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the Italian government to reconsider its stance. What was taking place
in Milan was a “direct breach of children’s rights” set out by
the UN, MEPs noted in an amendment to a 2022 report, and “part of a
broader attack against the LGBTQI+ community in Italy”

 

People take part in the LGBTQ+ Pride parade in Rome, June 2023.
 (Photograph: Cecilia Fabiano/AP  //  The Guardian)
At issue are the sweeping ramifications of allowing only one parent to
be legal, said Angelo Schillaci, a law professor at Rome’s Sapienza
University.

“It’s a nightmare for the parents as well as for their
children,” he said. “The second of the two fathers or mothers
cannot do practically anything, from taking the child to the doctor or
picking them up from school, without the authorisation of the legal
parent.”

At times even this is not enough. “Even with authorisation, for
example, they can’t make healthcare decisions related to saving the
child’s life.”

The risks for the family are enormous; if the legal parent dies or
becomes seriously ill, the surviving partner has no rights over the
children, meaning the children could become wards of the state or
handed to other relatives.

While some have cited adoption as a potential workaround, Schillaci
described it as a complicated fix that can take years to wind through
Italian courts. “What we need is a law that recognises same-sex
parenthood,” said Schillaci. “Because right now, the lack of any
such law allows for a series of discriminations and violations of
children’s rights – it’s appalling.”

The crackdown on same-sex parents has cast a spotlight on
Italy’s ranking
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the worst countries in western Europe when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights
and added to fears
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this meagre standing could be eroded under Meloni’s government.

 

Protesters gather in the Piazza della Rotonda, with placards that read
‘We are families, not criminals’.  (Photograph: Simona
Granati/Corbis  //  The Guardian)
Italy legalised same-sex civil unions in 2016 but stopped short of
allowing gay couples the right to adopt amid opposition from rightwing
parties and the Catholic church. IVF is banned for homosexual couples
in Italy while the Italian parliament recently approved
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bill that sets out fines of up to €1m (£855,000) and prison
sentences of up to two years for Italians who go abroad to have
children via surrogacy.

The government has defended its actions to limit the listing of gay
parents on birth certificates, arguing that the move, which echoes a
ruling from Italy’s top appeals court, will not prevent children
from accessing schooling or medical services through their one legal
parent. “There is no discrimination against [these] children,” the
family minister, Eugenia Roccella, told parliament in March.

Fiengo described the government’s move as underpinned by ideology.
“Otherwise what’s the problem? There are two men and two women who
love each other,” she said. “Since Meloni everything has started
to become difficult, more difficult than before.”

While she was holding out hope that her children – who range in age
from 14 to 21 years – were too old to have their birth certificates
revised, she lamented that other same-sex couples would now be denied
the same rights.

“Their children aren’t going to be protected as they should be,”
she said. “If they were a heterosexual couple, they would be
registered. So it’s a question of justice and equality.”

_[ASHIFA KASSAM is the community affairs correspondent for Europe.]_

_Around the world, readers can access the Guardian’s paywall-free
journalism because of our unique reader-supported model. That’s
because of people like you. Our readers keep us independent, beholden
to no outside influence and accessible to everyone – whether they
can afford to pay for news, or not.
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* Italy
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* Giorgia Meloni
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* children's rights
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* same-sex marriage
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* same-sex parents
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* LGBTQ
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* same-sex civil unions
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* European Parliment
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* Right-wing governments
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* Human Rights
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