A 13-year old boy’s mother has lost custody because he is ‘too effeminate’.

A Juvenile Court in the Italian city of Padua, in the Veneto region of northern Italy, ordered the boy must be transferred to a community away from home, according to Italian newspaper Il Mattino di Padova.

The boy went to school wearing eye shadow, painted nails and glitter on his face, Il Mattino reports – but his mother says it was only for a Halloween party.

The family’s lawyer raised concners over the boy’s safety, should he be transferred, citing a potential ‘reputation of being a homosexual’.

The court reportedly based its ruling on the fact that the unnamend boy’s parents had ‘fallen from parental responsibility’.

Miraglia said ‘the social services argue that his effeminate attitudes are chargeable to his mother and sisters, as his role models are women.’

It all started when the boy’s mother accused his father of sexually abusing the child.

He was acquitted for a lack of evidence – although the ruling states there was no reason to doubt the boy’s story.

The allegations led to a first removal order, which sees the boy attend a daytime community from 7am to 7pm every day.

According to German magazine Männer, they noticed the boy’s ‘effeminate behavior’ and flagged it up with social services.

This now led to the mother losing custody.

In a report widely quoted in Italian media, social services claim the child has a ‘personality disorder’.

‘In relationships with peers and adults he is aggressive, provocative, rude and tends to be eccentric,’ their report reads.

‘He tends to say in every way that he is different and flaunts effeminacy in a provocative way.’

They claimed he showed ‘deep relational problems and psychological distress signals’ and his ‘emotional world appears to be tied almost exclusively to female figures, and the relationship with the mother appeared characterized by aspects of addiction, especially referring to dyadic relationships with consequent difficulty of sexual orientation’.

The family’s lawyer called the ruling ‘scandalous’ and discrimination.

He is also worried about the boy’s safety when he is taken out of his home, even if they don’t know his sexual orientation.

‘There is no community that can accommodate a child who might be gay,’ he said.

‘And if he comes with the reputation of being a homosexual? Do we not run the risk of turning him into a child at risk of suicide?’

The court argues it isn’t discriminating, but are acting in the interest of protecting the boy’s childhood.

‘The court is not taking him away for an alleged effeminate attitude,’ Maria Teresa Rossi, President of the Juvenile Court in Venice, told Il Mattino.

‘Any measure that restricts parental responsibility is linked to a comprehensive view regarding the adequacy of parents to fulfill their role, and the protection of the child.’

Miraglia has appealed the court’s decision.