Padua's independent centre-left Mayor
Sergio Giordani said Wednesday he will keep continue to register
the children of same-sex couples despite a government provision
that has forced officials in Milan to stop doing so.
Milan was forced last week 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 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 last 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.
Rightwing government parties have also filed a bill that would
make surrogacy a "universal crime", enabling the prosecution of
gays who use it in other countries like Spain to get children.
On the registration in the registry office of the children of
same-sex couples "I intend to confirm the methods and procedures
that have been applied by me and the Municipality of Padua since
2017, and as always done by communicating every act to the
competent authorities", said Giordani after a "very cordial"
meeting with the Veneto city's Prefect, Raffaele Grassi.
"As mayor," Giordani continued, "far from making this an
ideological or partisan issue, I have a duty to first and
foremost protect the pre-eminent interests of girls and boys."
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