The Minister of the Interior, Giuliano Amato
Dear Minister Giuliano Amato,
The signatories of the following letter appeal to you to implement a series of interventions to prevent violence against LGBT people (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and promote, to the extent of its competence, their full social inclusion and the peaceful exercise of citizenship rights.
Every year in Italy, numerous homosexual and transgender people are murdered due to ferociously homophobic and transphobic feelings and behavior. From 1990 to today there have been at least 150 anti-gay murders. There are also numerous cases of transgender people killed, generally based on oppression and the human devaluation of the victim. Added to these phenomena are the countless physical and psychological abuses, in society, within the family, at school, at work, which have reached their maximum level of violence with the rape that occurred in recent days in Torre del Lago against a woman identified as a lesbian.
We request a meeting to effectively address this phenomenon and discuss the following proposals:
1. Activation of a national coordination body, including the identification of a contact person for LGBT issues at the Ministry of the Interior, with a view to coordinated action between the Ministry and organizations representing the LGBT population, as already occurs in numerous European Union countries, where a healthy relationship between law enforcement and the LGBT community is considered strategic for preventing violence.
2. Establishment of local consultation tables between prefectures and associations in various Italian cities.
3. Development of training courses for police forces, aimed at a deeper understanding of the LGBT community, its needs and lifestyles.
4. Visibility for LGBT people in uniform, still often subjected to discrimination and pressure, and their valorization as an interface between law enforcement and the LGBT population, as has long been the case in several European countries.
5. Publication of a White Paper on suicides and anti-LGBT crimes by the Ministry of the Interior's Research Center.
6. The Ministry's assurance that the registration of LGBT people will be definitively abolished, as a prerequisite for a relationship with law enforcement based on full mutual trust.
7. Support for anti-violence centers and local helplines.
8. Collaboration with the Ministry for Rights and Equal Opportunities, which has proposed: a civic education campaign; a permanent anti-violence observatory; a discussion forum between administrators, local representatives, and associations; the reduction of mitigating circumstances and the increase of minimum sentences for crimes involving violence and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
9. Recognition of the right to asylum in Italy for those persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and measures to facilitate transgender people without residence permits in reporting violence they have suffered.
10. Pass a law against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, extending to these areas the protections provided by the Mancino Law 122/1993 against acts of discrimination, hatred, or violence based on racial, ethnic, national, or religious grounds.
Rome, September 15, 2006
Agedo — Parents of Homosexuals
Arcigay
ArciLesbian
Turin Pride Committee 2006
Chrysalis Action Trans
Rainbow Families
Gays in uniform
Guado Group — Homosexual Christians
MIT — Transgender Identity Movement