Italy's Association of Rainbow
Families rallied in Bologna Sunday to def end the rights of
same-sex couples to have their children recognised by the state,
which the rightwing government has stopped.
"A clearer law is needed," said Bologna's centre-left Mayor
Matteo Lepore, referring to the supreme court ruling that the
government has used to stop mayors registering the children of
gay couples, but which appears to be open to interpretation.
Several hundred people defied steady rain to attend the Bologna
rally, held in the iconic central Piazza Maggiore.
The mayor of the northwestern port city of Savona, Marco Russo,
on Saturday became the latest local official to flouted the
government ban and register the son of two women.
The child, conceived in Barcelona with the assisted fertility of
one of the women, was born in Savona earlier this week.
It was the first case of registration of the child of a same-sex
couple in Liguria since the government stopped the practice.
Russo explained his decision to prosecutors and the prefect
saying that he had signed the act personally without involving
any other functionaries.
"I challenge the ban, the government is far away from reality",
he said.
The European Parliament on Thursday approved an amendment to its
motion for a resolution on the rule of law condemning "the
instructions given by the Italian government to the municipality
of Milan to suspend the registration of adoptions of same-sex
couples."
The amendment was submitted by the Renew Europe group and
supported by the Left, Greens and Socialists.
Milan was recently 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.
Furthermore, Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of
Italy (FdI) party has tabled a bill that would make surrogacy a
"universal crime", meaning that Italians could be prosecuted for
using the practice in foreign States where it is legal.
Many Italian same-sex couples have had children via surrogacy
outside the country.
The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) has condemned the
government's actions and said it will fight to pass legislation
protecting the rights of same-sex-parent families.
Milan Mayor Beppe Sala on Wednesday called for all the
opposition parties to form a broad alliance to fight for the
rights of same-sex-parent families. On Sunday he accused the
government of "trying to take us back into the past".
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Friday stressed the
government's opposition to surrogacy amid the row on registering
same-sex couple's children in Italy saying that women's bodies
weren't like ovens that bake potatoes.
"A woman cannot be exploited: she is not a cigarette machine. A
woman's womb must not be used to churn out children as if it
were an oven where roast potatoes are baked", Tajani, who is
also deputy premier and No 2 in Silvio Berlusconi's centre right
Forza Italia (FI) party, said on the sidelines of a local
election rally in the northern city of Udine, after the European
Parliament came out for the rights of same-sex families and
their children.
"It is not that women can decide on the uterus for rent," he
added, "one cannot commodify one's own body. To the EU
parliament I answer that the rules are written in Italy: it is
not a question of European competences. The parliament was not
legislating, it gave a majority opinion: if you want to change
the rules you have to change them in Italy".
A Brothers of Italy (FdI) MP said last week that surrogacy was
"more serious than paedophilia" while pro-life Family Minister
Eugenia Roccella said "surrogacy is prohibited and let's call it
by its name, uterus for rent, because it is a transfer of money
with a contract", and said it had racist connotations because
people were choosing blonde children instead of black ones.
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