Trends#Svegliatitalia: I say Yes I do

Here we are, again, talking about rights and civil unions. After 30 years our Country keeps wondering about giving equal rights and opportunities to common-law couples and if 2016 is the right year to do something about it. Homosexuals, heterosexuals, it doesn’t matter. I would call them individuals. Rights. Laws. The debate doesn’t concern sexual orientation but the real problem is that in Italy there is no law that regulates something real happening in the society. 30 years of chitchats, Dico, Pacs and now the Cirinnà bill. A less evocative name, but possibly a concrete opportunity. Let’s stop for a second and let’s observe real society objectively. There are 900 thousand Italian couples living under the same roof. Italy is the only Country among the six founders of the European Union that still hasn’t regulated unions between couples of the same sex. Among the 28 members of the European Union, we are part of those 8 that don’t acknowledge any rights to LGBTQ couples.

Greece was the latest of this continent to acknowledge and take care of the legislative lack. Even the super catholic Ireland in 2015 approved marriages between same sex couples, taking example from France. Even they have a catholic majority, but in 2013 they approved a law in this direction.

And as if it were not enough, if we talk about homosexual rights, Italy occupies number 34 in the Ilga ranking and is 49th as far as the countries part of it are concerned.

Cirinnà bill, rights and duties

The Cirinnà bill provide for the recognition of some rights, like stepchild adoption, reversibility of the pension, succession rights. It doesn’t recognize the right of indiscriminate adoption, and even the adoption of the son/daughter of the biological partner would have to be approved by Court and the son/daughter in issue would have to give his/her opinion about it (from 12 years on). There is nothing about an effective marriage.

The truth is that this is the Cirinnà bis bill, the second one revised and proposed, which differs from the previous one presented last October, precisely on the suppression of any juridical reference or condition to marriage.

But let’s talk about the other side of the coin. Of who, like me, is ready to take to the streets to shout at my country “wake up” …

#Svegliatitalia: it’s time to be civil

#Svegliatitalia is the demonstration that took place on the 23rd of January in 90 Italian squares, with the slogan “è ora di essere civili” (it’s time to be civil). We took it to the streets, brought alarm clocks and clocks with us, but mostly awareness and political and social conscience. We were asking our country to recognize an indisputable right, the one of being an individual, a couple, a son, a daughter and a citizen. We used social media to create and engage a more direct communication, with no filters, which can help make people understand that today, we were not just discussing homosexuals’ rights, but also our rights as citizens. The hashtag #Svegliatitalia (Italy, wake up) was already viral on the last friday (more than 1.8 million impressions and 1.6 million reach).

The event was organized by the LGBTQ associations present in Italy, in particular by Arcigay, ArciLesbica, Agedo, Famiglie Arcobaleno, Mit, but had the support of many lay associations. Many artists and famous people demonstrated in the past their support to de facto unions between same sex couples (among them, Tiziano Ferro, Luciana Littizzetto, Mina, Roberto Benigni, Roberto Saviano, Margherita Hack).

Family Day: an anachronistic event

In the 30th of January there will be the counter attack to the initiative and to the bill: Family Day. Since 2007, this manifestation has been going on and on, as an anachronistic and anti-European event. You can’t protest against rights. You take it to the streets to ask for more legal protection, to fight against inequality and not to hope that your country will be even more closed if it comes to civil rights. So I think that there is no point in giving space and visibility to who denies the right to be and to  choose. To me, Family Day does not exist. It is just the representation of a blind Italy that doesn’t want to grow up.

Au contraire “a Civil Country has to recognize and regulate, not deny and discriminate”

YES I DO: and let’s really do it

I want to shout to the world Yes I do. A campaign created by the web and that has pulled many famous personalities into it. As the organizers recognize “who loves the truth, who knows and acknowledges love, can’t stay behind: let’s be there, let’s give our hearts to this Let’s say Yes I do”.

Let’s shout a sentence out that many in their lives have the right to pronounce one or more times. In front of God, at the City Hall, they can share their vows. Well today I want to say my Yes I Do. Mine is not a promise, but a hope, that the next year I will be able to write about the Italian law that finally regulates civil partnerships. And with these words by Pier Paolo Pasolini in my heart, I hope that once again there will be no hypocrisy in winning this battle, something that has happened in the last 30 years.

 “In a society where everything is forbidden, you can do anything: in a society where something is permitted, you can only do that something.”