Italy removes gay mothers from children’s birth certificates in crackdown on LGBTQ parenting

Three children born to lesbian mothers in Italy have reportedly had their birth certificates altered to remove one mother.

Many more same-sex couples are likely to be targeted in the right-wing government’s crackdown on LGBTQ parenting. It comes as a result of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her right-leaning coalition government’s disapproval of same-sex couples raising children.

Some parents are also expected to be ordered to change the surnames of their children.

“I cried for 10 days”

The MailOnline quotes Michela, one of the first to be affected, as saying she “cried for ten days when I opened the letter [and received the news].”

The 38-year-old, who lives in Bergamo, Northern Italy, added: “It was as if I did not exist.”

According to the outlet, a letter was sent to Michela – who is not the biological mother of her daughter, Giulia – and her partner from state prosecutors saying Michela’s inclusion on Giulia’s birth certificate was ‘contrary to public order.’

Now, only Giulia’s recognised birth mother has parental rights over matters such as schooling and healthcare. Furthermore, if Giulia’s birth mother were to die, she would be handed to relatives or put into care, rather than becoming the legal responsibility of Michela.

Meloni, Italy’s first female Prime Minister, and a self-described “Christian mother”, is the leader of Italy’s national-conservative and right-wing populist Brothers of Italy party.

She became Prime Minister in October 2022. This followed a campaign that lambasted “LGBT lobbies” and “woke ideologies.”

“The maximum expression of homophobia”

A written statement was circulated in Italy in March 2023 ordering town halls to halt registering both members of same-sex couples as legitimate parents. They must now instead recognise only biological parents.

Alessia Crocini, president of Rainbow Families, told PBS at the time: “This government is the maximum expression of homophobia. Meloni says that to grow up well a child needs a mother and father. That is even if decades of research say otherwise. It is insulting to hundreds of thousands of families with two same-sex parents.”

According to The Times, a magistrate in Padua last month sent a court a list of 33 lesbian couples registered as parents since 2017. Judges were then asked to remove from birth records the name of the partner who did not give birth. The request will be ruled on in November.

Italy introduced a civil unions law for same-sex couples in 2016. However, IVF for same-sex couples is illegal.