Citizenship: Italian government finally votes for Gay Civil Unions bill

"Italy is today a more fair country", has announced Piero Fassino, leader of the party Ds, of the government coalition. The Italian Council of Ministers approved on 8 February a project of bill for civil unions, including those of same-sex couples, judged by Minister Giuliano Amato to be better than the French PACs. The text approved yesterday is a proposal and will be subject to modifications by the Parliament (lower House and Senate). It will only be effective after approval by the Parliament and after being published in the Official journal in Italy. "The bill recognizes the persons who live in co-habitation, either homosexuals or heterosexuals, the essential rights in order to make their life more solid and stable", indicated Ds party leader, Piero Fassino. At the same time, "this is a balanced and reasonable bill, that does not go against the rights and prerogatives of the family based in marriage", he added. The law will be called DICO (Diritti e doveri delle persone stabilmente conviventi = rights and duties of cohabiting persons). The Vatican (as usual) has campaigned against the legislation, claiming that homosexuals would seek to marry if a model resembling a marriage would be introduced. They pretend that marriage is only between a man and a woman. Therefore, to pacify catholic opposition, lawmakers followed the (limited) model in force in France since 1999 – the PACs, which provides co-habiting couples irrespective of sexual orientation the possibility to leave inheritances and life insurance to partners and also allows to share tax and health benefits.

Some gay activists however, like Vladimir Luxuria (communists) or Franco Grillinidice from Ds party, claim that the law is too limited and does not go far enough. It does not require a joint declaration of both partners and requires too many years of living together to access the rights. All in all, it is recognised that lawmakers could have done better but this is a first step ahead in a (too) conservative and catholic Italy.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi had promised to introduce the legislation in his programme before the last elections. The approved draft law will now be presented to the parliament. Italy was one of the only three countries among the 13 that share the euro, along with Ireland and Greece, not to have any form of legal framework for same-sex couples.

Read more in the newspaper La Repubblica.
Read the text of the draft bill.