Italy: regional government withdraws support for Pride March

With this, the governor refers to one of the action points of the Roman Pride March. This organisation is in favour of surrogacy for gay couples, while the conservative government of Giorgia Meloni wants to crack down on the practice. Italian politics is debating a proposal to punish couples with a child abroad through a surrogate mother. Those penalties could reach up to two years in prison.

The organisers of the Roman Pride parade see this as an attack on the LGBT community and therefore chose the theme ‘Queeresistenza’ (Queer Resistance). And that again did not go down well with the regional administration. Governor Francesco Rocca, backed by Meloni’s party Brothers of Italy, thinks Rome Pride is using grant money to propagate an ideology. In addition, organisers said the regional government was distancing itself from the national government’s plans by supporting an organisation that favours surrogacy. This was another reason for the Lazio region to withdraw from the event.

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Conservatives welcomed Rocca’s withdrawal. The Catholic anti-abortion group ProVita embraced Rocca’s U-turn, saying that it would continue to monitor his administration to ensure it did not become “a vehicle for gender and LGBT ideology”. Matteo Salvini, the leader of the right-wing League Party, also welcomed the move on Instagram: “Support for the propaganda of rented wombs? No thanks.”

A Pride March was also on the political agenda in Milan. There, the Lombardy regional council, a centre-right council, rejected a motion to delegate a member to participate as its formal representative in the Milan Pride 2023 event on June 24.