Rainbow Families, Mayor Sala promises battle: “We must guarantee, as the European Court of Human Rights also requests, the full rights of every child who is born”
March 14, 2023: the Italian government blocks the registration of children of rainbow families at the registry office. A provision to which even Milan – one of the most avant-garde municipalities in Italy on the transcriptions of children born to same-parent couples – had to comply. But the position of its mayor, very clear, was not long in coming: “This stoppage is an evident step backwards from a political and social point of view – said Giuseppe Sala – I put myself in the shoes of those parents who in Milan thought they could count on on this possibility and I will take charge of carrying on this battle politically and of following with the utmost attention every regulatory and judicial development of this complex affair. I am ready to seize every concrete opportunity to continue the process of recognition of rights of all of them and so that Milan will always be the protagonist”.
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These are very clear words on the recognition of children of same-parent couples which is already a reality throughout Europe except in Italy and Greece. And Sala said them in his podcast Good morning Milan in a long and in-depth speech.
“We need a law”
Among the most significant passages, there is the one in which the mayor underlines the need for a law: “Registration does not only depend on the political will, it is an act which has to do, logically, with the administrative apparatus of the Municipality and I, given also the position taken by the Prosecutor, cannot expose a municipal official to personal risks of a judicial nature. He should be the legislator a allow by law as happens in other countries, including European ones, for example in Spain and Denmarkthe registration of the child of a same-sex couple regardless of the more onerous and to date truly troubled adoption procedure in particular cases”.
“The path indicated by the Cassation to ensure the rights of the child, ie adoption in particular cases – continued Sala -, appears today in Italy by now to be very complex and cumbersome. It will therefore have to be made much faster and more effective in order to be able to provide an answer to the numerous legal problems that are once again unresolved and above all to guarantee, as the European Court of Human Rights also requests, full rights to the child as well as the family that wanted him and in which he lives”.
“In spite of ourselves, therefore, a today, children of two men who have become parents can no longer be registered resorting to gestation for others practiced abroad, nor the children of two women who underwent medically assisted procreation abroad but with birth in Italy. In these cases, in fact, according to the Court of Cassation, the protection of the minor can be guaranteed exclusively through adoption, moreover only in special cases”.
The mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala
“It is right to demonstrate”
Giuseppe Sala also returned to the subject on Wednesday 15 March, on the sidelines of the presentation of the competition Back to Talent. To the reporters present, the Mayor made further statements worthy of note: “The thing that worries me is that, if up until two days ago and up until my speech, it seemed that the registration of children of two women born abroad was safeguarded, the prefect tells me that the prosecutor’s office has challenged four of these cases. I don’t blame anyone because everyone plays their part but it seems to me an escalation that goes towards a return to the past and the denial of certain rights”.
Rights that will be defended on Saturday 18 March with a protest garrison in front of the prefecture: “I think it’s right to make your voice heard and demonstrate, but this has now become a political problem. Mine is not a battle against the government, but it is a battle involving my political side and I would like Parliament and in particular the Democratic Party to expose itself. I also discussed it with new secretary Elly Schlein who agrees that this is now a political issue that needs to be regulated. They say what they want to do.”
The mayor will not participate in the gathering – organized by Sentinelli and Rainbow Families among others – but will take part in a press conference the day before, Friday 17 March: “Milan was also at the forefront in terms of support for the Zan bill and then we saw how it ended – concluded Beppe Sala – I always put my face into it but I would like to be sure that above all my political side will then do its part”.
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