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Italy has become the latest country in the EU to legally recognise same-sex partnerships, but it does so at the expense of stepchild adoptions.
Italy was the only country in Western Europe that didn’t have any kind of legal provision for same-sex unions. However, the country’s Democratic Party was forced to water down its same-sex unions bill to get it through parliament. As covered by Vada Magazine earlier in the week, a compromise was made to remove stepchild adoptions from the bill, meaning that children living with a same-sex couple may be put in care or removed from their family home if their birth parent dies.
Italian Association of Homosexual Parents President Marilena Grassadonia said, ‘We are outraged, angry, disappointed. We can’t believe that in 2016, in the Europe of rights, in a country like Italy which is so proud to be part of this Europe, it is possible to make a law on civil unions without considering children who should be protected as Italian citizens and discriminated minors. The country has lost a great opportunity to make the first great step towards civilisation.’
The European Court of Human Rights last year condemned the traditionally Catholic Italy for its failure to implement LGBT equality. But although the bill creates benefits and protections for same-sex unions, it does not permit same-sex marriage.
The vote had previously been delayed while the Democratic Party (PD) sought allies among centrist opposition parties to get the bill through without too many obstructive amendments from conservative parties.
