A major political row broke out on
Sunday after Fabio Rampelli, a lawmaker for Premier Giorgia
Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, said some gay
people were passing themselves off as parents.
The comments came after a major rally took place in Milan on
Saturday to defend the right of same-sex-parent families.
The protest 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.
"If two people of the same sex request that a child they are
passing off as theirs be registered in the civic register, it
means that they have done surrogacy outside the national
borders," Rampelli told La7 television late on Saturday.
Pina Picierno of the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party
(PD) said Rampelli's comments were "nasty".
"Violent reactionaries are passing themselves of as politicians
worthy of the country's government," Picierno added.
Equal Opportunities and Family Minister Eugenia Roccella said it
was false to argue that the children of same-sex parents were
getting second-tier treatment.
"There is no denial of children's rights," Roccella told Rai
television.
"They all have the same rights in Italy".
She added that, while she did not agree with the words Rampelli
had used, the concept was correct.
"You have to declare a series of things at the civil registry
and, if you say that two fathers are both the parents, you are
saying something that is not true," Roccella said, adding that
she considered surrogacy to be a "market of children".
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