LGBT associations have launched an online appeal to the government to rid schools of homophobia.

Nearly 18,000 signatures have already been collected. Many prominent figures have signed up, from Chiara Saraceno to Gustavo Zagrebelsky, from Oliviero Toscani to Luigi De Magistris.

Bologna, March 27, 2015 – In just five days since the launch, they are already almost 18 thousand the signatures at the bottom of the petition “"Stop homophobia at school"” promoted by A.ge.do, Arcigay, ArciLesbica, Radical Association Certain Rights, Equality Italy, Rainbow Families, Gay Center  for a “public and secular school,” “open to social transformation, a fundamental place to contribute to the production of identity, of all identities: heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and transgender.”. The associations ask the Prime Minister and the Government "to strengthen and fully implement the "National Strategy for the prevention and fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (2013-2015)", also with a view to the three-year period 2016-2018"“. "School," the promoters explain, "is a tool for implementing Article 3, because it lays the foundations so that every boy and girl, every girl and boy, has every opportunity to fulfill themselves as a person. Unfortunately, in Italy, this is not the case for many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender boys and girls: school is not a safe place, a place where they can find positive role models on which to build their lives. Indeed, school can be the place where being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, or being the child of gay, lesbian, or transgender people, means being exposed to insults, ridicule, and isolation; a place where one learns that it is better to hide to avoid violence, bullying, and marginalization. A place where it is even difficult to ask for help because it means exposing oneself, not finding the support of peers or adults. A place where the right to education takes a back seat, because gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender adolescents, or those associated with homosexual or transgender people, must... First and foremost, defend oneself. All this has serious consequences, in the most dramatic cases even irreversible, on an educational and existential level: severe discomfort and fear of returning to school, decreased academic performance, dropping out, marginalization, low self-esteem, feelings of depression and helplessness, and the risk of attempted suicide and suicide.

“National and international research – we read in the appeal – speaks clearly: 4% students have repeatedly suffered, on a weekly basis, aggressive acts because they were perceived as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, especially between the third year of middle school and the first two years of high school; therefore, there are approximately over 100,000 victims of homophobic bullying per school year. As many as a third of young people who commit suicide every year are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people; furthermore, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people attempt suicide two to three times more often than heterosexual men and women of the same age, due to discrimination and social stigmatization." Numerous personalities have already joined the appeal, including sociologists. Laura Balbo And Chiara Saraceno, the constitutionalist Gustavo Zagrebelsky,  Oliviero Toscani,  Vladimir Luxuria, Andrea Occhipinti, the mayor of Naples Luigi De Magistris, the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Victor Lingiardi,  Alessandro Cecchi Paone, Professor Emerita of Educational Psychology Clotilde Pontecorvo, Councilor for Youth Policies, Equal Opportunities, and Integration Policies of the Municipality of Turin Ilda Curti , the Councillor for Heritage, European Policies, Communication and Equal Opportunities of Rome Capital Alessandra Cattoi, the psychologist Margherita Graglia, the journalist and writer Delia Vaccarello, the philosopher Nicla Vassallo, the writer Maurizio Maggiani, the geneticist Marcello Buiatti, the psychotherapist Paul Valerio, Lidia Menapace, the Councillor of the Piedmont Region Monica Cerutti, the mayor of Udine Furio Honsell and numerous national and European parliamentarians from the PD, M5S, PSI, SEL.