hundreds of demonstrators march in Milan against the restriction of the rights of homosexual parents

“You tell my son that I am not his mother”, denounced a sign held up in the middle of rainbow flags in one of the squares in the center of the city. Several hundred people demonstrated on Saturday March 18 in Milan, Italy, to protest against initiatives by the ultra-conservative government of Giorgia Meloni aimed at restricting the rights of homosexual parents.

The city of Milan has registered in the civil registry children of same-sex couples born either through recourse abroad to surrogacy (GPA), prohibited in Italy, or through medically assisted procreation. But the centre-left mayor of Milan, Beppe Sala, revealed this week that he had stopped doing so after the Interior Ministry told him in a letter that it was up to the courts to decide. .

“It’s an obvious step backwards”

Unions of same-sex couples were legalized in Italy in 2016, but leaving aside the right to adoption. Decisions concerning children are taken on a case-by-case basis by the courts, but some local authorities have sometimes taken the initiative, as in Milan, to act unilaterally.

Since coming to power in 2022, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has placed a strong emphasis on traditional family values. “Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby!”she said before her election at the head of a far-right coalition.

“It’s an obvious step backwards from a political and social point of view, and I put myself in the shoes of those parents who thought they could count on this possibility in Milan”said Beppe Sala in a podcast, assuring that he did not admit defeat.