The Italian Debate about Civil Unions and Same-Sex Parenthood : The Disappearance of Lesbians, Lesbian Mothers, and Mothers

This article presents the political debate about the legal recognition of same-sex couples and same-sex parenthood in Italy, focusing on written sources such as documents and historiography of the Lgbt movement (so called since the time of the World Pride 2000 in Rome), and a press review covering the years 2013-2016. The aim of this reconstruction is to show if and how the sexual difference, quite relevant in matters of procreation, has been talked about within this context. The overwhelming majority of same-sex parents in couples in fact are lesbians, but, as it will be shown, lesbians were seldom mentioned in the debate (main source: a sample of the press). In particular lesbian mothers since an early time disappeared from the debates about same-sex parenthood, until the mothers themselves were canceled with the endorsement by the majority of the Lgbt movement of subrogation of motherhood, where a woman becoming a mother is called and treated like a “carrier”. The debate started with the first proposal on civil unions (not mentioning parenthood) by Arcigay in 1987, until their introduction with the law 76/2016, also not considering parenthood. The debate is presented more synthetically for most of these 29 years, until it landed in Parliament in 2015 and 2016, highlighting stepchild adoption and surrogacy. Stepchild adoption is still only for heterosexual re-married couples, though tribunals are conferring shared parenthood for both gays and lesbians.