(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 18 - Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein on Saturday accused the government of being cruel to the children of same-sex couples at a big Milan rally staged to defend the rights of these families.
    "These boys and girls are being cruelly attacked by those who govern the country," said Schlein, who was recently elected the first woman leader of the opposition, centre-left PD.
    "But they are children like all the others. They go to our schools, they are growing up in our communities.
    "There is no reason to deny them recognition, their right to exist in this community". The rally was organized after Milan was forced to stop a procedure it had used to register both members of a same-sex couple as the parents of a child after the prefect's department warned it was illegal following consultations with the interior ministry.
    The procedure was based on the transcription into the Milan civil register of foreign birth certificates of children conceived by surrogacy, which is illegal in Italy, or assisted fertility, which is only allowed for heterosexual couples here.
    Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who also attended Saturday's rally, said the suspension of the transcriptions was a "step backwards" while adding that he had no alternative as he could not expose council employees to the risk of facing criminal charges for registering these birth certificates.
    Furthermore, earlier this week the ruling right-wing majority was decisive as a Senate committee voted to reject an EU plan for the rights of same-sex parents to be recognized throughout the bloc.
    Schlein said the PD was already at work to present a bill in parliament for the rights of same-ex parents to be recognized in Italy. (ANSA).