Italy’s families minister says same-sex parents shouldn’t be recognised as legal guardians
He claimed that IVF and surrogacy is illegal in the country and should stay so
By Steve Brown
Italy’s families minister said same-sex couples who have children via surrogacy shouldn’t be recognised as legal guardians.
Lorenzo Fontana – a member of the far-right League party – is making it more and more difficult for same-sex couples to become parents and this week he told a parliamentary hearing by saying laws banning gay couples having a child via surrogacy should stay illegal.
He said: “The current family law situation cannot fail to take account of what has been happening in recent months on the issue of the recognition of parenthood, with the registration of children conceived abroad by couples of the same sex via the use of practices that are banned by our laws and should stay so.”
Matteo Salvini – the leader of the League – added: “So long as I am minister, gametes for sale and wombs for rent do not exist in practice – they are crimes.”
The comments by Fontana – who said same-sex parents don’t exist back in June – were directly targeting the northern Italian city Turin, which became the first city in the country to legally register gay parents of children born via IVF or surrogacy.
Chiara Appendino, a politician with Fontana’s opposition party, Five Star Movement, responded to his comments and said: “We are proud that Turin was the first Italian city to give homosexual couples the right to be recognised as parents.
“We will continue along this path, in order to guarantee children the right to a family in which love is the only necessary requirement.”