Equal Rights and Equal Marriage
According to estimates, homosexuality and bisexuality concern millions of people in Italy. Citizens who live into love relationships with people of their same sex have always been denied the right to a recognized and protected family life. Italy thus discriminates these relationships and places them into a lower level of social and legal protection, compared to straight couples.
The Fight for Full Equality
Yet studies show that by recognizing full equality, there are positive effects not only for gay, lesbian and bisexual people, but for the entire community. First of all, this would launch a positive message of cultural recognition and acceptance, while also allowing a younger generation of gay, lesbian and bisexual (but also transgender and intersex) people to grow up in a more peaceful environment, allowing them to imagine a future of equality, at least on the legal level. But there’s more: a study conducted in the United States after the introduction of equal marriage in Massachusetts, published in the American Journal of Public Health, [Hatzenbuehler et al., 2012] shows that the introduction of same-sex marriage has favored an increase in the well-being of homosexual people, with reduced minority stress, measured in terms of depression and similar problems, and a subsequent decrease in healthcare spending.
Gay and Lesbian Parenting
Also the opposition to LGBTI people being parents or adopting children has no scientific basis: there are over 70 studies showing that there is no difference in the development of children of same-sex couples and of children of heterosexual couples [Manning et al., 2014; see also Columbia Law School]. A study published in 2015 in the Social Science Research journal shows how the general consensus of scholars is overwhelming positive [Adams and Light, 2015]. Opposition studies can be counted on the fingers of one hand and have been strongly criticized for their methodology: they are in fact considered fundamentally flawed [Cheng and Powell, 2015].
For these reasons, the extension of civil marriage to same-sex couples, the full recognition of gay and lesbian parenting rights, and the possibility to access a plurality of family regulatory forms, are longtime objectives for us at Arcigay.
From Civil Unions To Equal Marriage
Equal marriage is among our priorities as we fight for full citizenship and equality for LGBTI people. This goal was set in February 2010 at the Association’s Congress. Equal marriage represents obviously one of the strategic objectives for the association: Italy should become one of the many countries worldwide to have it [click here to download the map].
Until the Civil Union Law was passed in 2016, also thanks to the role played by Arcigay, hundreds of thousands of Italian LGBTI families were not recognized in any way, as they incurred daily in discrimination and difficulties, even when there were children involved.
The Italian Civil Unions guarantee basic rights to same-sex couples, like the right to take healthcare decisions on behalf of the spouse in case of incapacity, fiscal property determination, survivor beneficiary pension, inheritance, taking over of contracts, marriage leave, child support, the right to acquire the surname of the partners, and more. Despicably as it may seem, no parenting rights are recognized: the Italian lawmakers decided to avoid full recognition of same-sex parents with children. [Click here to download the law] This is one of the main reasons why we consider equal marriage as a fundamental goal, for the affirmation of equality of all couples, no matter their sexual orientation, for the sake of their children. This is an essential objective for full civil and social recognition of Italian LGBTI people.
Our long-standing battle for equal marriage
Arcigay was already on the battlefield organizing mass-gatherings as a first proposal for a civil-union law (the then called “DICO”, inspired by the French PACS law) reached the Parliament in 2007. That was the first step in a long-time battle for equal marriage. Arcigay took part to the legal battle that started in 2010 by joining the “Sì lo voglio” (lit. “Yes I do”) Committee, that successfully led the Italian Constitutional Court to express itself in favor of gay marriages and to invite the Parliament to pass a law. During the 2013 general election, Arcigay started the first #temposcaduto campaign (lit. “time is over”), monitoring and pressuring candidates of all political parties to firmly commit on 4 points, and assigning a score to each one of them: one of these points was about supporting equal marriage and parenting rights. A similar campaign, but more sophisticated, was launched for the 2014 European elections: #cominciatu (lit. “you start”, from a famous hit from the 70s), which still asked all candidates to support the battle for equal marriage and to sign the platform put together by ILGA-Europe, the European LGBTI association which in turn called for firm commitments.
At the beginning of 2015, Arcigay began working on a campaign strategy for reaching equal marriage, also thanks to the collaboration with Condividilove. The result was #lostessosì – lo stesso amore gli stessi diritti (“The same ‘I do’ – same love, same rights”) a nation-wide campaign involving several LGBTI and non-LGBTI organizations. The campaign symbol (a red heart with a “ = ” sign in the middle) was featured during the long public debate on civil unions and will characterize the continuation of the battle for egalitarian marriage. Several actions were carried during that period, like flash mobs on Valentine’s Day and on the International Day Against Homophobia in 2015 and 2016, during the Pride Parades of 2015, as well as during the mass-gatherings of #svegliatitalia (lit. “Italy, wake up!”) when 1 million citizens took over dozens of squares all over Italy on January 23rd, 2016, or during the Collisioni International Festival in July 2016.
Riferimenti:
ISTAT, La popolazione omosessuale nella società italiana, Maggio 2012. (http://www.istat.it/it/archivio/62168)
Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, Conall O’Cleirigh, Chris Grasso, Kenneth Mayer, Steven Safren, and Judith Bradford, Effect of Same-Sex Marriage Laws on Health Care Use and Expenditures in Sexual Minority Men: A Quasi-Natural Experiment, American Journal of Public Health, February 2012, Vol. 102, N. 2, pp. 285-291. (http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300382)
Wendy D. Manning, Marshal N. Fettro, Esther Lamidi, Child Well-Being in Same-Sex Parent Families: Review of Research Prepared for American Sociological Association Amicus Brief, Population Research and Policy Review, 2014, Vol. 33, N. 4, pp. 485-502.
Jimi Adams, Ryan Light, Scientific consensus, the law, and same sex parenting outcomes, Social Science Research, Vol. 53, September 2015, pp. 300-310.
Simon Cheng, Brian Powell, Measurement, methods, and divergent patterns: Reassessing the effects of same-sex parents, Social Science Research, Vol. 52, July 2015, pp. 615-626
stensione del matrimonio civile a coppie dello stesso sesso, il pieno riconoscimento della genitorialità gay e lesbica, e la possibilità di accedere ad una pluralità di forme di regolamentazione delle famiglie, sono per Arcigay obietti vi di lungo corso. Le Unioni Civili introdotte nel 2016, anche grazie all’attività di pressione di Arcigay, hanno riconosciuto diversi diritti a centinaia di migliaia di famiglie LGBTI fino a quel momento escluse da qualsiasi tipo di tutela e riconoscimento. Tuttavia, il legislatore non ha voluto riconoscere l’esistenza e la legittimità piena delle famiglie omosessuali che hanno figli, e ha voluto anzi rimarcare la differenza tra famiglie eterosessuali e famiglie LGBTI. Arcigay si batte affinché questo tipo di discriminazione finisca e sia stabilita la piena uguaglianza nella società, nella cultura e nella legge italiana, affinché l’art.3 della nostra Costituzione sia pienamente rispettato. Lo fa con campagne nella società, con azioni legali strategiche e facendo pressione sui partiti affinché inseriscano la piena uguaglianza nei propri programmi.