Italian lesbians win right to adopt each other’s kids in legal first
In a groundbreaking case a lesbian couple in Italy have won the right to adopt each other’s children.
The women won their court battle on Friday – other cases where women have been allowed to legally adopt each other’s children are at appeal stages, reports the Local.
Efforts to legalise same-sex civil unions recently saw adoption rights stripped out, in an effort to appease Catholic politicians.
The bill passed in the Senate after having the adoption provision removed.
Rome’s juvenile court made the ruling that Marilena Grassadonia could adopt her wife’s twin sons and her partner could adopt her son.
Grassadonia is the president of the Rainbow Families Association, and has campaigned on a number of LGBT issues.
Italy’s civil unions bill is to go to the lower house from 9 May.
“On a personal level, it’s a huge satisfaction, but I cannot be fully happy when I think that our (Rainbow) families depend on individual decisions” through courts, instead of being protected by law, said Grassadonia in a statement on Friday.
The civil unions bill came about after the European Court of Human Rights upheld complaints of discrimination by same-sex couples, who currently have no legal rights in Italy
However, it has stirred up resentment between the LGBT community and the country’s powerful anti-gay Catholic lobbying groups – with large rallies and political manoeuvring against the measure.
Vile signs at one rally linked to Catholic groups compared gay people to Nazis – leading Prime Minister Renzi to tell the Church to keep out of the debate, given the legislation does not actually impact religious marriage.
Amid a debate around the bill, a group of senators also proposed prison sentences for gay couples who use overseas surrogates.
