Queer parents and allies in more than a dozen European cities are holding protests against the Italian government’s removal of nongestational mothers in two-mom families from their children’s birth certificates. Here’s what’s happening and how you can help.
The Attack
To recap from my previous post: Central government officials in Padua have informed 27 families with two moms, raising 33 children, that the nongestational parent is being removed from their child(ren)’s existing birth certificate(s). The move comes after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government told cities not to allow the creation of Italian birth certificates that include two mothers, nor to recognize foreign birth certificates of children with two fathers. Some jurisdictions have allowed same-sex parents to adopt each others’ children since 2014, but this has not been enshrined in Italian law. Now, Meloni’s officials in Padua are dragging the country backwards.
The Eurocentralasian Lesbian* Community (EL*C) issued an open letter to Meloni last week, explaining that removing nongestational mothers from the birth certificates, “will have major impacts” on the everyday life of children in these families:
Their mom cannot pick them up at school, they might not be able to do educational activities and they will not be able to travel. Their right to healthcare will be in danger, as only one parent will be able to authorize medical procedures (from the flu shot to urgent life-saving procedures).
They ask Meloni:
Is your political ideology more important than the rights of our children? Is it worth denying fundamental rights to lesbian families to gain political consent? What will you achieve by pitting the rights of our children against other children?
The Protests
EL*C called on its members to demonstrate at Italian embassies and consulates, and protests took place or will take place shortly in Belgium (Brussels), France (Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseilles, Nice, Paris), Germany (Berlin, Cologne), Portugal (Lisbon, Porto), Spain (Alicante), and the U.K. (Dublin, London). Today, there was a protest at the Vatican.
For more news in English about these events, follow the Instagram accounts of EL*C, LGBT Mummies, From Gay to Ze, and Stonewall UK. If you read Italian or don’t mind going through a translation app, you may also want to follow Famiglie Arcobaleno (Rainbow Families), Italy’s largest organization for LGBTQ parents.
How You Can Help
From Gay to Ze, aka Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley of the the U.K.-based LGBTQ parenting podcast, has asked that people not only spread the word about what is happening, but also send a letter to the Italian Embassy in your country. They suggest starting with the text of the EL*C open letter, if you like.
The e-mail for the Italian Embassy in Washington D.C. is washington.ambasciata@esteri.it. There are also several consulates around the U.S. with their own contact information. In Canada, the Italian Embassy is at ambasciata.ottawa@esteri.it. A quick online search can provide information for embassies in other countries.
I’ll add that those of us not in Europe can also reach out to any family and friends who do live there and encourage them to take part in any local protests.
As I’ve said before, too, if you think something similar can’t happen in the United States, think again. Courts in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, among other places, have stripped parentage from nongestational mothers. These have been specific cases, not a mass stripping of rights as in Italy, but may serve as dangerous examples for the future. (See “LGBTQ Paths to Parentage Security,” at lgbtqparentage.org, for a guide that GLAD and I developed to help you understand current options for legally protecting your family.)
We should stand in solidarity with the two-mom families in Italy, even as we push for laws that better protect LGBTQ families in the U.S. In our connected global world, we can do no less.