It’s getting worse and worse, Italy is in free fall when it comes to LGBTQIA+ rights and even the times when the Zan bill was discussed seem far away. Today the idea of approving a law against homo-lesbian-transphobic violence appears unthinkable and, precisely for this reason, Italy appears in thirty-sixth place out of 40 countries in the annual ranking on LGBT+ rights by the NGO Ilga Europe.
We have fallen three positions in a year, we are even worse off than Orbán’s Hungary, only Latvia, Bulgaria and Poland are behind us in Europe. The data was released ahead of May 18, the World day against homophobia, biphobia and transphobiaa necessary opportunity to take stock of the situation.
To create the ranking, Ilga Europe is based every year on 75 criteria divided into seven categories: equality and non-discrimination, family, hate crimes and hate speech, legal gender recognition, intersexual bodily integrity, space in civil society , and right to asylum. For years now, Malta has been in first position in the ranking, but several countries are making progress at a legislative level: Iceland has moved up three positions and the same goes for Germany, Estonia, Liechtenstein and Greece. Estonia introduced the possibility for same-sex couples to marry and adopt children in 2023, Greece did the same as well as strengthening its anti-discrimination law while Liechtenstein extended adoption rights to same-sex couples. Germany, however, is committed to combating hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sexual characteristics. In Belgium, Cyprus, Iceland, Norway and Portugal, conversion practices have been banned.
None of this happened in Italy. The report underlines how the current government has, on the contrary, spoken openly about countering the “LGBT lobby” and “gender ideology” and in the last year has targeted homosexual couples who resort to childbearing for others, denying them the ability to include the non-biological parent’s name on children’s birth certificates. In Italy the climate on these issues is tense, lately there has been talk of limiting puberty blocking drugs for trans adolescents and, while we continue to not have a law against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, attacks on members of the LGBT+ community are on the rise.
According to Ilga, these data are «the demonstration of what can happen when there is no legislation that protects people and far-right governments gain power». Furthermore, in our country, conversion therapies which aim to change a person’s sexual orientation with techniques devoid of scientific value, often humiliating and dangerous, bordering on torture, have not yet been banned. For Democratic Party deputy Alessandro Zan, Italy is now “increasingly close to those countries that make discrimination and violence against the LGBTQIA+ community precise policies”.
