Rightwing PM Giorgia Meloni has demanded councils register only biological parents on birth certificates, leaving partners in legal limbo
hether it is school runs or doctors’ visits, Maria Silvia Fiengo and Francesca Pardi have always shared in the raising of their four children. But in recent months – after Italy’s rightwing government began cracking down on the listing of same-sex parents on birth certificates – the life they have forged together has been thrust into uncertainty.
“We’re a bit worried. You never know what is going to happen,” said Fiengo. “Our children have had two parents from the very first moment they were dreamed of and brought into the world. But we’re not protected by any law.” Following the birth of their children, she and Pardi spent years battling for legal recognition, butting up constantly against the absence of a national law setting out parental rights for same-sex couples. In 2018, the city council of Milan offered up a lifeline, telling them it would begin listing parents of the same gender on their children’s birth certificates.Children of LGBT couples draw during a protest in Milan.
The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, said he had little choice but to comply. In the northern city of Padua, the state prosecutor went further, that the 33 birth certificates issued to the children of lesbian couples be changed to remove the name of the non-biological mother. A court is expected to rule on the request later this year.