Italy 'one of the worst countries in Europe' for gay and trans rights

Pride month is getting underway in Italy, with events and parades planned in towns and cities across the country to mark the occasion.

But celebrations don't necessarily provide a good measure of how well a country is doing when it comes to LGBTQ+ protections - and major rights groups say Italy is lagging far behind neighbouring countries.

Italy is in fact one of the worst countries in Europe for gay and trans rights, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association's Europe chapter, ILGA-Europe.

ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Map, which ranks 49 European countries based on their LGBTI equality laws and policies, placed Italy at 35 on the list for 2024.

Italy scored 25.4 percent for its protections for and rights granted to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, compared to an EU average of 50.6 percent.

Compared to other EU states, only Latvia (37), Bulgaria (38), Romania (39), and Poland (41) rank lower.

Nearby Malta, with its strong hate speech and gender recognition protections, came first, while Spain ranks in fourth place.

Source:ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map

ILGA-Europe's 2024 review highlights that hate speech against LGBTI people in Italy is "openly perpetuated" by the government of far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who has pledged to fight what she calls the "LGBT lobby".

Since coming to office in October 2022, the prime minister has elevated lawmakers who think along similar lines.

In early 2023, MP Federico Mollicone of Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy party described same-sex parenthood as "not normal" and surrogacy as "worse than paedophilia".

Senate speaker Ignazio La Russa, who co-founded Brothers of Italy with Meloni, has said he would be "sorry" to have a gay son.

Despite this, Italy did make some strides towards equal rights in 2023.

A national collective labour agreement for the education, university and research sector that came into force in July requires employers to let trans staff use gender-neutral bathrooms or bathrooms matching their gender identity.

And in May of last year the Senate voted in favour of a motion to combat criminalisation based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) around the world.

But these were overshadowed by significant setbacks in the area of family rights, after the interior ministry issued a directive instructing town councils around the country to only put biological parents' names on birth certificates, and ordered the mayor of Milan to stop legally recognising both parents in same-sex families.

READ ALSO: Milan stops recognising children born to same-sex couples

This was followed by an order from Padua's Prosecutor's Office that the city's registry offices cancel 33 birth certificates featuring the names of two same-sex parents, and the lower house's approval in July of a bill that would make surrogacy a "universal" crime including for Italians who seek out the service abroad.

To improve its ranking, Italy should introduce marriage equality and make co-parenting rights of same-sex couples automatic, ILGA-Europe recommends.

The organisation also endorses banning medically unnecessary surgery on intersex minors and "depathologising trans identities".