Italian civil union bill finally reaches parliament.

• Report rights infringement
• published: 15 Oct 2015
• views: 182

A bill to give legal recognition and protection to same-sex couples was presented to the Italian parliament on Wednesday (October 14), marking a significant milestone on the tortuous path to legalising civil unions in Italy. Italy is the only major country in the West that has not yet offered homosexual couples any legal rights as successive governments ran into determined opposition from parties close to the Roman Catholic Church. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had promised that a bill allowing civil unions would become law this year, but that looks highly unlikely, with his main coalition partner, a small centre-right group, fiercely opposed to the project. However, looking to speed up the process, the government on Wednesday briefly presented its bill to the upper house Senate, a move which could open the way for its approval in early 2016. "We are finally here with a civil union bill that is very strong," said Senator Monica Cirinna, author of the text. "It is not exactly equal to other marriages, which I would have preferred, but it is a bill that recognises all social rights: the passing on of pensions, stepchild adoption and parent responsibility over the partner's natural son or daughter," she told Reuters. "We can't have children in Group A those of heterosexual married couples like my children, and those of Group B, excluded from their rights which are those of heterosexual families. We want all children to be protected," Cirinna said. While stopping short of sanctioning full gay marriage, the legislation offers some of the benefits enjoyed by married couples, such as a share of a deceased partner's pension and automatic inheritance. One major sticking point is that the bill would allow a homosexual to adopt the child of their partner should that partner die. The coalition New Centre-Right (NCD) party says this will eventually pave the way to full adoption rights and has sought to block the draft law in a parliamentary commission. "The country is divided," said Senator Roberto Formigoni from the right wing NCD party. "But certainly against gay marriage and against stepchild adoption which is basically a uterus for rent, because clearly two gay men by themselves cannot make a child. They would rent a poor woman from the Third World to have a child and then take the child away," he said. Breaking the logjam, Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) decided this week to halt discussion in the commission, bypass hundreds of amendments and bring the text to the full house. From the end of this week, the Senate calendar will be dominated by discussions over the 2016 budget, but the civil rights law should be able to return to the chamber before the end of the year and then move to the lower house for debate. Italy which is strongly dominated by the presence of the Vatican and Roman Catholic beliefs, appears to be split on the issue. "I think a union between two people of the same sex is not wrong," said lawyer Salvatore Catalano as he walked close to the senate. "Where I do not agree is with the adoption and upbringing of children. I believe for the interests of the children and not the adults, they have a right to grow up with a mother and not with people of the same sex, or two fathers," he said. One woman, who didn't want to be named, said Italy has failed to act on the issue of gay marriage for too long. "I believe we are behind where we should be on this, we need to proceed but do even more than the current law which has been proposed." The parliamentary move coincides with a meeting in the nearby Vatican of bishops called to discuss the role of the family. The Church has warned there will be protests if the law passes and Pope Francis said this month that marriage between a man and a woman was "God's dream for his beloved creation".