To the President of the Italian Republic
Dr. Sergio Mattarella
Quirinal Palace
Quirinal Square
00187 Rome
Most Illustrious President,
With the reopening of parliamentary proceedings, discussion resumes on the Cirinnà bill, which the LGBTI movement is called upon to endure. This bill represents a compromise between the current denial of our rights and what we believe to be the only solution capable of guaranteeing full equality and dignity among the citizens of this country: same-sex marriage.
In recent hours, the barrage of pressure and threats has begun again, aiming to scuttle the Cirinnà bill by stripping it of the content that, in its original formulation, made it barely a sufficient starting point for a future discussion on full equality.
The highest echelons of the clergy and political forces both internal and external to the majority are working to perpetuate discrimination against millions of citizens based on an arbitrary, false, and exploitative reading of our Constitution.
You, Most Illustrious President, were the first in the history of the Republic to pronounce words concerning this discrimination in your inaugural address to the Chambers, urging the legislator to intervene promptly on the matter, as requested in 2010 by the Constitutional Court, of which you were a member.
As the highest guarantor of our Charter, we turn to you today with mistrust and concern. Concern for the lives and dignity of ourselves and our families, who once again risk being sold off for political games of balance and the pursuit of easy electoral consensus.
We appeal to you, with your authority and within your constitutional prerogatives, to send a message to the Chambers urging urgent compliance with the Constitutional Court's rulings 138/2010 and 170/2014, as well as the recent Oliari vs. Italy ruling by the ECHR.
We believe that the gravity of the social situation—the repeated violation of homosexuals' fundamental human right to family life—and the institutional situation, clearly illustrated by Parliament's five-year indifference to the aforementioned Constitutional Court ruling, make your message absolutely necessary.
Equal social dignity and equal treatment before the law, as provided for in Article 3 of our Constitution, which many, too many, pretend does not exist, busy as they are in interpreting Article 29 as they please. This is what we ask, Most Illustrious President, nothing less, nothing more.
September 3, 2015
Agedo, Anddos, Antéros LGBTI Padova, Arci, Arcigay, ArciLesbica, Radical Association Certain Rights, Gay and Lesbian Action, Befree social cooperative against trafficking, violence and discrimination, CILD, Mario Mieli Homosexual Culture Circle, Tondelli LGBTI Circle, Condividilove, Turin Pride Coordination, Edge, Equality Italy, Esedomani Terni, Rainbow Families, Gay Center, Different Worlds, Ireos, La Fenice Gay, Larcobaleno – LUISS Students Association, Love Out Law, MIT, Polis Aperta, Rainbow Parents Network.