Gay parents set to be removed from children’s birth certificates in Italy

LGBTQ+ rights in Italy are considered to be among the worst in Western Europe

It is a decision which could see some parents facing barriers from picking up their children from nursery, or taking them to doctors’ appointments – while their offspring will no longer be able to use their surname.

Now some Italian mothers and fathers have been told they will no longer be the legal parent of their child, under a ruling which aims to remove a second parent of the same gender from birth certificates.

Women and men who have a family with a partner of the same gender are set to no longer be regarded as a legal parent under court rulings made in two regions of Italy. The move could see them encounter problems in some aspects of daily life, such as picking up their child from kindergarten or school – without express written consent from the legal parent.

Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy.

Under the rulings, which have to be ratified by Italy’s High Court, the second same-sex parent listed on the birth certificate will also no longer have the right for their child to bear their surname. Instead, only the woman who physically gave birth to the child will be regarded as a legal parent.

The legal decisions are the latest move by Italy’s right-wing government, which critics say is eroding the rights of LGBTQ+ couples in the country.

A total of 33 lesbian parents were earlier this week named by authorities in the city of Padua to be removed from the birth certificates of their children – some of whom are as old as seven. The public prosecutor’s office searched historic birth registrations made by mayor Sergio Giordani, some of them dating back to 2017.

Separately, a court in Milan on Friday cancelled the transcription of the birth certificate of a boy with two fathers – three months after the city was told to stop issuing documents without specifying a gender to same-sex couples. However, a legal technicality meant three cases of children with two mothers, which had been put forward for annulment, was postponed.

Campaigner Alessia Crocini, president of rights group Famiglie Arcobaleno, branded removing a legal parent from a child’s birth certificate “a shameful and unworthy act of a civilised country” and said the action was the “pure hypocrisy of a government that has been acting systematically since it took office to cancel the rights of our children”.

She added: “As Famiglie Arcobaleno, we will fight alongside these parents and we will not leave any action unturned.”

The interior ministry’s diktat to Milan in March over the recognition of two same-sex parents on birth certificates sparked protests in the city, with thousands of people taking to the streets.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament voted to condemn the decision, branding it a “violation of the rights of the child” and “part of a broader attack against the LGBTQI+ community in Italy.” This came just days after Italy’s Senate voted against a European Commission regulation for cross-border recognition of same-sex parents, joining only Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia as countries in the bloc which have refused to take on the decision.

The Italian government, led by prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who took power last October as leader of the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party, has been criticised internationally for its right-wing policies on LGBTQ+ rights.

During her election campaign last year, where she ran on a platform of “God, fatherland and family”, she made it clear that she was not likely to improve rights for the LGBTQ+ community in Italy, regularly ranked as one of the worst in Western Europe - and one of few Western countries where gay marriage is not legal.

When a student spoke to her in Sardinia and told her he wanted to be able to get married and raise a family in his own country, Meloni replied: “You want a lot of things…everyone wants things; you already have civil unions.”

She was recently quoted in an interview as saying that “a child deserves only the best: a mother and a father.”

However, the Italian government insists that its decision on same-sex parents has nothing to do with homophobia – and is instead linked to what it has described as “wombs for hire”: paid surrogacy, which is not legal in Italy.

Separately, on Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights rejected a number of appeals by Italian same-sex and heterosexual couples who challenged national restrictions against the recognition of children born abroad through surrogacy, saying the Italian rules do not breach article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights, which covers the right to respect for private and family life.

Echoing previous comments made by Ms Meloni and her government, the Milan judges argued that same sex couples being recognised as parents encourages surrogacy, which they claimed “offends the dignity of women and deeply undermines human relationships”.

Meanwhile, the Public Prosecutor's Office in Padua, headed by Valeria Sanzari, said a child having a birth certificate which states they have two mothers "goes against the law, and the pronouncements of the Supreme Court”.

In response to the Padua ruling earlier this week, the government’s parliamentary relations minister, Luca Ciriani, said only the biological parent should be recognised.

He said: “In Italy, marriage is only between a man and a woman, and therefore only the biological parent is the parent whose surname can be registered.”

Italy legalised same-sex civil partnerships as recently as 2016 while under a centre-left government . However, it did not include full adoption rights – again on the grounds that they would encourage surrogate pregnancies.