Abstract
Recent public debate in Italy has been noteworthy for its renewed focus on issues of gender and sexual citizenship. The discussion is well summarized and symbolized by two opposing political discourses that have been engaged in a lengthy struggle. On one side stands a neo-conservative Catholic movement that opposes the recognition of LGBTQ relationships and defends “the natural family”. On the other side there are the LGBTQ movements, which are claiming full civil, social and sexual citizenship. The present article analyzes this conflict, which was clearly illustrated by two public events held in Rome in June 2015 (Family Day and the Rome LGBTQ Pride). The paper, methodologically based on Critical Discourse Analysis, examines the most relevant political documents (manifestos and press releases) issued by the organizers of the two demonstrations, highlighting the existence of ambivalent discourses on the naturalization of sex and the universalization of social and sexual citizenship.
Highlights
Recent public debate in Italy has recently been noteworthy for its renewed focus on issues of gender and sexual citizenship
In the past few years – and especially since 2013 – it has been fuelled by three draft laws that were intended to bring about recognition of partnerships and marriages between same‐sex couples,1 educa‐ tional programs on gender relations in schools and the introduction of the crime of homophobia into the law
Research Methodology This paper analyzes the political and public discourse of the actors who promoted two public events that exemplify the debate described above: Family Day, a demonstration promoted by groups associated with Catholic values that took place in Rome on 20 June 2015; and the Rome LGBT Parade,3 which was held on 13 June 2015.4 The LGBT Onda Pride rallies were held in fifteen northern and southern Italian cities: the first was in
Summary
Recent public debate in Italy has recently been noteworthy for its renewed focus on issues of gender and sexual citizenship. In the past few years – and especially since 2013 – it has been fuelled by three draft laws that were intended to bring about recognition of partnerships and marriages between same‐sex couples (the Cirinnà Bill, 2013), educa‐ tional programs on gender relations in schools (the Fedeli Bill, 2014) and the introduction of the crime of homophobia into the law (the Scalfarotto Bill, 2013). 74 | Elisa Bellè, Caterina Peroni, Elisa Rapetti These three proposals were developed in the context of a peculiar and contradictory political context. It must first be observed that recognition of same‐sex partnerships and marriages has reappeared on the political agenda in Italy following a relatively long series of unsuccessful attempts by the center‐left parties – between 2005 and 2008 – to put it there (for a detailed reconstruction of the political debate, see Ozzano and Giorgi, 2015). Even for heterosexual couples, the only form of public recognition is marriage
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