Italy Erases Names Of Gay Mothers From Birth Certificates Of Children; Crackdown Led By Woman PM

The shock news arrived without warning in January: Michela Leidi was being officially cancelled as the mother of her daughter on the infant's birth certificate.

"I cried for ten days when I opened the letter," said Michela, 38, who lives on the outskirts of Bergamo, a city in northern Italy, near the Swiss border. "It was as if I did not exist," she added.

Michela and her 35-year-old wife Viola are among the first targets of the Right-wing Italian government's attempt to crack down on same-sex parenting and surrogacy, imposing its 'conservative moral values' in the country.

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Crackdown led by woman PM Giorgia Meloni

Prime minister Giorgia Meloni's coalition disapproves of LGBT+ couples raising children together and says the country's laws do not allow children to have two mothers. The letter from the state prosecutor informed them that the inclusion of the name of Michela (who is not the biological mother of their daughter, Giulia) on the birth certificate was 'contrary to public order'.

This move means only the recognised biological mother has parenting rights, such as for schooling and healthcare, and if she was to die, her children can be handed to her relatives or taken away into the state's care.

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A little context

This came after a state prosecutor in northern Italy demanded in June the cancellation of 33 birth certificates of children born to lesbian couples dating back to 2017, saying the name of the nonbiological mother should be removed.

The move by the prosecutor of Padua highlighted the legal morass facing gay families in Italy. It came months after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni＊s government ordered city councils to stop registering same-sex parents＊ children.

Italy legalized same-sex civil unions in 2016 under a center-left government, but stopped short of giving couples full adoption rights, fearing that it would encourage surrogate pregnancies, which remain illegal.

In the absence of clear legislation on the issue some courts have ruled in favor of allowing such couples to adopt each others＊ children, and mayors of some cities, including Padua, have registered births to both partners from same-sex unions.

However, the prosecutor of Padua, Valeria Sanzari, opened a legal case this month, saying that 33 birth certificates signed by the city mayor since 2017 should be changed, with the name of the nonbiological mother removed. A court will rule on her requests later this year.

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Political agenda or anti-gender ideology?

The government 每 led by Italy's first female prime minister, who campaigned against 'the LGBT lobby' and 'gender ideology' when winning power last year 每 claims it is simply tidying up grey areas in the country's Byzantine legal system.

But critics claim Meloni is provoking an ideological war by picking on same-sex parents to appease her most hardline supporters and divert attention from struggles on other fronts, such as tackling immigration or poverty.

There are now more than 13,000 such partnerships. Gay couples are banned from accessing reproductive medical treatment such as IVF, while surrogacy has been illegal for two decades 每 unlike in Britain or the US. This forces same-sex couples to go abroad if they want children.

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