Ask Italian Mayors to Recognize the Children of Rainbow Families
Every parent knows that it takes more than love, protection and responsibility to take care of their children. Every parent's life is also full of bureaucracy, things like authorizations, parental consent, and lots of documents. All of this accomplished with a simple signature, a signature that today is being denied to the legally unrecognized rainbow parents.
The lack of recognition of dual parenthood doesn’t take away rights from parents, it takes them away from children. Rainbow parents only ask to be held legally responsible for their children.
It is because of all this that the Famiglie Arcobaleno Association has championed a bill for family equality which has already landed in Italy’s Parliament.
It is a bill drafted together with Rete Lenford – an LGBTQI+ rights advocate – that’s focused on bringing equality and dignity to all families.
And it’s a law waiting for those in Parliament who care about the welfare of so many children still discriminated against today.
For too many years, politics has ignored the rights of the LGBTQI+ community. But Italy’s history and the recent protests, remind us that Italy is a better country than those who govern it, and that civil society and many mayors have long been at our side in this battle for civilization.
DisObey is an appeal that is addressed precisely to the Italian mayors who have supported our families by granting our children their family’s identity.
But it is also an appeal to all the other mayors who are willing to support us as of today. We ask them to "disobey" courageously, because when laws are unjust they must be fought.
And we will do it together!
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Update – 29 March 2023: The mayors of Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Bologna, Florence and Bari have jointly declared themselves against all forms of discrimination. They’ve also pledged to fight for a law that guarantees the rights of the children of same-sex couples, and in the meantime, to guarantee only the transcription of birth certificates formed abroad by two mothers.
Famiglie Arcobaleno thanks them for their support and solidarity. However, we must insist that the protection and safeguarding of our children be concrete, tangible and inclusive.
Our position has always been very clear: our goal is to give equal rights and dignity to all children, regardless of how their family is formed, where they were born and how they were brought into the world.
And we will continue to fight for this, asking them to stand by our side in this fight, asking them to continue registering birth certificates without making distinctions between those who have two fathers or two mothers and those who were born in Italy or abroad.
Don't leave us alone!