“Hope betrayed”: same-sex unions are part of Italian law. Same-sex adoptions too.

The Italian President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, did not listen to the requests of the legal scholars. Without exercising any sort of veto power, he “obediently” signed the bill that introduces same-sex unions in the Bel Paese.

What’s next? Some “conservative” politicians, who did not dare opposing the bill’s approval, argued that it does not allow for homosexual adoptions – not even in the form of step-child adoptions. Renowned Italian lawyers and judges, however, do not agree.

According to their legal analysis, which leaves little room for doubts, the newly enacted law offers legitimation precisely to the controversial practice of step-child adoptions by the same-sex partner; a practice that a quite creative jurisprudence introduced in the Italian legal system in 2014.

Nothing in the new law explicitly excludes this possibility. On the contrary, the travaux préparatoires confirm the soundness of those jurisprudential conclusions.

A further guarantee for Italian same-sex couples’ “right to adopt” will also come from the powerful European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

According to the Strasbourg’s jurisprudence, in fact, member states are relatively free to establish their own legal regimes for same-sex couples (so-called “margin of appreciation” doctrine). They must recognize some fundamental rights to homosexual partners, but there is no international obligation upon the states, says ECHR, to extend to these couples the rights of the family.

However, argues ECHR, once a member state adopts provisions that substantially equate same-sex unions to heterosexual families, all the rights of the latter must apply to the former. At that point, to treat same-sex partnership in a different way would constitute a discriminatory measure. This, indeed, is what the new Italian law does: it equates the partners of a civil union to marital spouses. Therefore, step-child adoption is now a right – a fundamental right.

Notwithstanding the silence of hundreds of conservative politicians; notwithstanding the professed Catholicism of the Italian premier, Matteo Renzi – who supported and somehow imposed this bill –, the enactment of the so-called “Legge Cirinnà” is one of the most “progressive”, LGBT-friendly move that Italy ever made.

Italian Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, commenting on the approval of this bill, declared: “Sergio Mattarella, by signing this bill, subscribed to a redefinition of marriage. But no legal instrument has the power to change reality.”

One difference remains: same-sex partners are not legally bound to be faithful to their partner.

View online at: https://c-fam.org/turtle_bay/hope-betrayed-sex-unions-part-italian-law-sex-adoptions/

© 2024 C-Fam (Center for Family & Human Rights).
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.
www.c-fam.org