LGBT+ protest after the sinking of the Zan bill against homophobia
MILAN — There will be no more official registration of children born to same-sex couples in Milan. After an attempt at resistance, Mayor Beppe Sala was forced to step back following a request from conservative Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi.
Milan had been one of the few cities in Italy to automatically recognize at the registry office the parenthood of same-sex couples who became parents through heterologous fertilization or surrogacy abroad. The decision to discontinue this practice was announced by Sala on Monday. The certificates made so far remain valid.
The current legislation does not specifically prohibit this practice, but it does not mention this possibility either, which is why some cities, like Milan, decided to enact special laws to allow it.
A step backward
However, the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office specified that such registrations “are not allowed”, but that since the law is not clear, “whenever there are cases of transcription of acts in discrepancy with the regulations in force, it will be necessary for the Offices to make the report to the National Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
In his daily podcast, Mayor Sala called this decision “a step backward” and explained “that registration does not depend only on political will: it is an act that has to do with the legislative apparatus of the municipality,” and that he “cannot expose a municipal official to personal risks of a judicial nature.”
He has also promised that “this will become [his] political battle with the executive.”
This news is paired with the Italian government’s decision to reject the EU Regulation that would allow children of same-sex couples to have their rights recognized throughout Europe.
Minister of Interior Matteo Piantedosi and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in 2022
Hostility to the LGBT+ community
Criticism from opposition parties arrived quickly. Alessandro Zan, the namesake of the Zan bill against homophobia and transphobia and member of the center-left Democratic Party, said the decision comes from "unspeakable pressures that confirm the hostility of the government of [Italian Prime Minister Giorgia] Meloni against the rights of the LGBT+ community."
They should get used to the fact that children with two dads and two moms already exist in Italy.
Zan compared Italy's policy on the issue to "actions worthy of [Viktor] Orban’s Hungary.”
From now on, the biological parent will be the only one appearing on official documents, explains Alessia Crocini, the president of the Rainbow Families Association, which brings together Italian parents belonging to the LGBT+ community.
“Ministers Piantedosi and Prime Minister Meloni should get used to the fact that children with two dads and two moms already exist in Italy,” Crocini added. “Every day they go to school, enter pediatric offices, play in parks and sports fields, attend music classes, like all their peers, without having the rights of all their peers. This situation is not that of a civilized country, and we wonder when this injustice will be remedied by a common-sense law that reflects reality.”
The decision to take action against same-sex couples came after a request from a local center-right politician following the fiery statements of Federico Mollicone, a member of Meloni’s party Brothers of Italy and Chairman of the Culture, Science and Education Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.
