Rome hosts ‘family day’ for thousands opposed to legislation that would allow gay couples to make legal commitment

Tens of thousands of people have gathered in Rome to protest against legislation that would allow civil unions for same-sex couples in Italy.

It is the only major western nation yet to grant gay couples the power to make a legal commitment or adopt children.

The Italian senate began examining the bill on Thursday. Its supporters argue that it must be voted in following repeated complaints from the European court of human rights about the country’s failure to change the law.

However, opponents hope their protest on Saturday, backed by the Catholic church, will prevent that happening. A similar “family day” protest in 2007 forced Romano Prodi’s government to abandon a much less ambitious civil union proposal.

The senate is expected to vote on the bill in mid-February before it goes to the lower house of parliament.

The Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) said on Friday it was concerned about the “process under way of putting marriage and civil unions on the same level – with the introduction of an alternative to the family”. Last week, Pope Francis reiterated the Catholic church’s opposition to gay marriage, saying that the traditional family was “the family God wants”.

Rally organiser Massimo Gandolfini called on as many people as possible to take part in “the only weapon we have”. Simone Pillon, another organiser, said: “We want the whole law to be withdrawn, no ifs and no buts. Children need to have a father and a mother.”

The prime minister, Matteo Renzi, has said he is confident the bill will pass, although his coalition partners oppose the adoption of children by a gay spouse. The Catholic fringe of Renzi’s Democratic party has similar objections.

The interior minister, Angelino Alfano, who is also leader of the small New Centre Right party (NCD), took part in the rally. “I fully adhere to the aims of this gathering,” he tweeted, underlining the hurdles Renzi will face in trying to get the bill through parliament.

The anti-establishment Five Star movement (M5S) and leftwing parties in the opposition, whose support is needed to get the bill through the senate, have threatened to pull the plug if any changes are made to the legislation.

Italy’s Agedo association of parents and friends of LGBT people called on opponents to the bill to reconsider. “It is statistically certain that among your children there are many boys and girls who, even if they’ve never confided in you, are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender,” it said.

Beppe Severgnini, a popular columnist for the Corriere della Sera newspaper, said the arguments against gay civil unions echoed those opposing divorce more than four decades ago. “The answer should be the same: no one is obliged to get divorced, no one is obliged to get a civil union. But if they want to, why should we stop them?”

The Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who used to be a couple, this week released a line of handbags and T-shirts celebrating same-sex families.

A handbag from the new D&G range celebrating same-sex families.

A spokesman for Dolce & Gabbana said they would not comment on whether the new range was connected with the upcoming vote. Online reaction to the designs was mixed, with some Instagram users suggesting the label was trying to make up for lost sales from gay customers.

Dolce was criticised last year after making inflammatory remarks about gay families in which he said he was not convinced by what he called “synthetic children” and “wombs for hire”.



“We oppose gay adoptions,” Dolce said in a magazine interview. “The only family is the traditional one.” He went on to describe children born through IVF as “children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalogue”.