Fertility Day: a LGBT perspective

The infamous campaign on the Fertility Day promoted by the Italian Minister of Health was followed by strong reactions from different sides of Italian society. Among them, the Italian LGBT community. They didn’t fail to speak up against the homophobic message promoted not only with the chosen images, but also in the content itself.

A racist, sexist and homophobic campaign

During the first hours after the campaign was released on its website and on social media, the immediate reaction was again, incredibility. Immediately we all thought it was a meme, a joke, maybe a bad one Something so profoundly sexist, racist and homophobic couldn’t come from an institution like the Minister of Health. But sadly, we were wrong. 

When the campaign’s images went public, suddenly Italy was set back in its fascist darkest era. Portraying women as objects, useful to the country only if they can procreate, and obviously, procreate inside the so-called “traditional family”: obviously heterosexual. All of this was supported by the image of straight couples, all white, tall, blond and with light-colored eyes. The image was actually previously used for a toothpaste advertisement.

As the president of Famiglie Arcobaleno (“rainbow families”, the Italian associations of LGBT parents) recalled in an article published by lgbtnewsitalia.it, the huge clash inside the Italian Parliament during the debate on the Civil Unions Law is still a hot topic. 

On the 20th of May 2016, Italy, for the first time in its history, recognized same-sex civil unions. The law passed after a 30 year long debate, exasperated in the final months. The political party of the Minister of Health, Beatrice Lorenzin, insisted to recall the importance of concepts such as “natural law” and “natural order” in order to ostracize, or at least impoverish, the rights contained in the law. Furthermore, one of the major controversial and discussed points regarded the LGBT families and their children, and in particular the institute of stepchild adoption.

The stepchild adoption would have permitted the recognition of the second parent in a same-sex couple, not only to be permanently legally tied with their children, but also to protect the children in case of death of the biological parent.This institute, formerly contained in article 5 of the Civil Union Law, was then erased and never approved due to political opportunism of Lorenzin's party. In facts, the political pressure of the People of Freedom (Pdl) , the party of Berlusconi and the Minister of Health made other MP's change their mind too.  As a result, thousands of families cannot be properly recognized: the children born in an LGBT family have only one legal parent instead of two. 

Only children from heterosexual parents 

In the light of Italy's most recent political history, the Fertility Day campaign that aims to encourage new pregnancies, appears outrageous and offensive towards the thousands of LGBT families and their children, already alive and existing, left without guarantees and protections. According to this outrageous campaign, children are welcome only if born by heterosexual parents. The message is clear: it is not about health, because the fertility of lesbians, gay, bisexuals and trans people is left outside. The campaign says that it is not relevant for the State, certainly not encouraged.

After the enormous amount of critique raised, the Minister withdrew the images from the official campaign and the campaignwebsite. However, even after public interviews, the homophobic content of the campaign remained unaddressed, unspoken. he life of LGBT families, their needs, their recognition as a valuable part of Italian society still remains an inconvenient topic, apparently not suitable for mainstream media.

Although this may be true, there are some positive signals in the opposite direction. The Italian Minister of Defense, Roberta Pinotti, recently declared to Polis Aperta (LGBT police forces association) that she celebrated the Civil Union of two women in Genova on the 10th of October 2016, marking a milestone in Italian political history. Hopefully this will encourage not only more LGBT people in the army to come out, but also to overcome the persistent homophobia in some political areas.The historical gesture of Minister Pinotti gives Italy hope to see women as valuable human beings and not only for their reproductive function.