On 29th July, the Judiciary Committee in Italy completed its examination of an extension of the law against homo-/transphobia and misogyny and gave the green light to the draft law on this issue.

The new law, if approved by Parliament, would be an extension of the existing paragraphs which already criminalise racist violence, hatred and discrimination. In addition to queer offences, the law also criminalises misogyny.

Adoption by the committee borders on a miracle

The fact that the law has made it through the Judiciary Committee is a real success for the ruling parties who submitted the motion. The planned amendment to the law had in fact been fiercely contested by extreme right-wing parties and religious groups. Alessandro Zan of the “Sinistra Ecolgia Libertà” party was thus very delighted:

“The bill against #omotransphobia and #misoginia was approved by the Justice Committee. Many thanks to my colleagues who defended the text with determination: The majority is strong and united against hatred and discrimination. Now the Chamber in Montecitorio on August 3rd!”

Right-wing conservatives, religious and feminists* are pushing through text changes

Hundreds of Catholics protested in Piazza Montecitorio in Rome on 16 July, chanting that the law posed a threat to their freedom of expression. Also numerous politicians* of the right-wing populist camp were among the demonstrators, for example the leader of the extreme right-wing party “Fratelli d’Italia”, Giorgia Meloni, or Matteo Salvini of the “Lega Nord”.

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Minister of the Interior between June 2018 and September 2019, was one of the biggest critics of the planned change. In his opinion, there was no difference between a crime of homophobia and a crime of heterophobia. However, he did not provide a definition of the term heterophobia.

The Committee on Justice had to bow to the pressure of the right wing – an amendment was inserted in Article 2, which was renamed “Salva omofobi” (“Save homophobes”):

“According to this law, the free expression of convictions or opinions and legitimate behaviour attributable to the pluralism of ideas and freedom of choice are allowed.”

Fabrizio Marrazzo, a spokesman for the Rome based association Gay Center, won’t let this amendment on freedom of expression stand. Together with the president of the Italian Jewish community, Noemi Di Segni, he is fighting for a revision of this clause “to prevent hate and violence from being legitimised in the name of this principle”.

“We demand, however, that the amendment “Salva Opinioni Omofobe” requested by Forza Italia be revised in court to at least limit the expressions that consider LGBT persons (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people) as inferior or sick individuals”.

Queerfeminist debate about orientation and identity

Another point that “should be examined in detail in the Chamber” is the controversy surrounding concepts such as “gender, gender identity, gender, sexual orientation”. Feminists had called for a “more precise definition” of the terms.

Francesca Izzo, the main protagonist of the controversy, told La Repubblica that she had nothing against “sexual orientation” and that the term was fine for her. Based on the fundamental understanding of feminism “No to gender identity, sex [in the sense of gender] cannot be erased”, the new law must explicitly speak of “transsexuality” and not of “gender identity”.

As La Repubblica reports, the law against “omotransfobia” and “misoginia” will now be passed on to the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. Negotiations in the Camera dei deputati are to begin on August 3.

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