Thousands rally in support of civil unions in Italy

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Italy over the weekend in support of gay rights amid mounting concern that a proposal to legalise civil unions between same-sex couples could falter in the final hour.

The Italian Senate is to begin debating the historic legislation on Thursday but it is far from clear whether Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s left of centre government has enough support to pass the measure.

Italy is the only major country in the West not to give same-sex couples any legal recognition, or protection on issues from pensions to parenthood.

“We hope it will pass but we don’t know,” said Fabrizio Marrazzo, a top gay rights activist with the campaign group Arcigay in Rome. “We hope the politicians see that this is not a law just for LGBT people, but for all Italians, for civil rights in Italy.”

He added: “We don’t have more time. In other parts of Europe they did this 10 years ago.”

He made the remarks on Saturday night hours after thousands of activists met at the Pantheon in central Rome to voice their support for the bill. Similar pro-rights protests took place across Italy, including Milan, Florence, Naples, Palermo, and an estimated 90 public squares. Among many rainbow-coloured flags, protesters held alarm clocks, signalling it was time for Italy to “wake up”.

Opponents of the legislation are expected to hold a counter-protest on 30 January, in what is known as a “family day” protest supported by Catholic groups. Some opponents say it's the right of the child to have heterosexual parents, but many at the rally say that is discrimination too. 

If the proposal passes, it would grant both gay and heterosexual couples the right to enter civil unions recognised by the state and would allow a same-sex couple to share a name. Under certain circumstances, it would also extend parental rights to gay partners by allowing the child of a person who was previously in a heterosexual union to be legally adopted by a same-sex partner.

In July, the European court of human rights ruled that Italy was guilty of violating human rights because it did not offer adequate legal protection or recognition to same-sex couples. That decision has put pressure on Renzi to act on an early promise to pass civil unions.

Few government ministers participated in the protests on Saturday. But one, Maurizio Martina, the agriculture minister, was among the pro-rights demonstrators in Milan on Saturday.

“This law on civil unions needs approving now,” he told Reuters. “We are the only European country not to have one, and there is no more time to be lost.”

Failure to pass the legislation would likely be condemned across many parts of Europe, though not among conservatives. It would strike a blow to the image of a modernising Italy that has been at the heart of Renzi’s message since he became prime minister in 2014.