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Debating Homosexuality in Italy: Plural Religious Voices in the Public Sphere

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Public Discourses About Homosexuality and Religion in Europe and Beyond

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Abstract

The relatively late legalization of same-sex partnerships in Italy in comparison to other European countries is partly due to the powerful presence of the Vatican within Italy’s borders and its voice in political debates. Although the number of Italians who actively practice the Catholic religion is decreasing, Catholic values are enshrined in history, laws, and everyday life, making Catholicism in Italy an “influential minority” with aspects of “vicarious religion.” In response to the legalization of same-sex partnerships, anti-European and anti-immigration populist forces have mobilized the Vatican discourse against “gender ideology” to gain public legitimacy. This chapter analyzes the complex entanglements of religion and homosexuality by looking at the shifting boundaries of public and private spheres, the contradictory and unintended effects of the Europeanization of LGBT+ rights, and the transformations of Catholicism and the plurality of the Italian religions’ positions on LGBT+ rights.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Other sources include LGBT+ associations: ILGA Europe publishes an annual review (https://www.ilga-europe.org/sites/default/files/italy.pdf), while GayCenter and Tolleranza Zero map homophobic episodes (see https://tolleranzazeroital.wixsite.com/tolleranzazero).

  2. 2.

    Gender reassignment has been legal since 1982, and a recent Constitutional Court decision (2015) asserted that sterilization sex reassignment surgery is not required in order to obtain a legal gender reassignment. The first openly transgender MP was elected in 2006 among the representatives of the Communist Refoundation Party.

  3. 3.

    Over the years, it changed its name and organizational identity—movement, party, pressure group, electoral lists, transnational party. I refer to the Radical party to indicate the core activists and ideas. The Radical Party is also connected to some civil society associations promoting LGBT+ rights (such as CertiDiritti).

  4. 4.

    Turina especially underlines the example of the Dutch Province of the Roman Catholic Church, “whose episcopate, already in the 1960s, issued a pastoral note … in which it recommended favoring stable relationships of homosexuals couples, considered the lesser evil compared to loneliness and promiscuity” (2013, 193).

  5. 5.

    The adoption of psychological language over moral language can also have unintended effects: much publicity was given to a recent interview in 2018, during which Pope Francis I suggested that at a young age, homosexuality could be the symptom of psychological issues to be addressed. The declaration sparked widespread criticism and debate, and the sentence was removed from the Vatican official media statements—see https://www.france24.com/en/20180827-vatican-catholic-church-pope-francis-gay-children-parent-psychiatric-help.

  6. 6.

    https://sentinelleinpiedi.it.

  7. 7.

    The organizing committee is called Difendiamo i nostri figli (Defending Our Children) and gathers members from five main organizations: Non Si Tocca la Famiglia (Hands off Family), La Manif pour Tous, Scienza e Vita (Science and Life), Giuristi per la Vita (Lawyers for Life) and Provita (Pro-Life).

  8. 8.

    Former organizers of the Italian Family Days are now employed by CitizenGo.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy

    Alberta Giorgi

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  1. Alberta Giorgi
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  1. The Hague, The Netherlands

    Marco Derks

  2. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Mariecke van den Berg

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Giorgi, A. (2020). Debating Homosexuality in Italy: Plural Religious Voices in the Public Sphere. In: Derks, M., van den Berg, M. (eds) Public Discourses About Homosexuality and Religion in Europe and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56326-4_9

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