IS A RADICAL AND UNITED MAY 17TH POSSIBLE?

Open letter on the Mieli Rights Road assembly

On Saturday 29th March the Circolo Mario Mieli, after 9 years (from the 2016 debate on the Cirinnà law), opened its doors for a national assembly convened by the committee The Road of Rights. And we were there.

As Cassero we shared the process towards this date with the town meeting Free spaces for all the fags and we have built a critical position to bring to Rome. The Bologna assembly was born as a response to the four fascist attacks suffered by the Cassero from November 2024 to January 2025 and is made up of anti-fascist, trans-feminist, student, trade union, housing, anti-racism, free Palestine, anti-repression, environmental, and anti-rearmament movements.

This seemed to us the ideal venue in which to share this first, unexpected opening of the mainstream LGBTQIA+ movement to the movements. Because, we want to emphasize, the real novelty of this assembly is the openness of the national institutional associations towards everything that has always remained outside, because it was too radical, too rebellious, too disturbing, and not the fact that some "radical" groups have given in and agreed to sit at the table. There has never been a table. And when, Tired of yet another institutional political failure with the defeat of the Zan bill, we were the ones who tried to create it with the LGBTQIA+ & Disability Gender States platform, but this attempt was boycotted and cancelled.

It is clear that Stati Genderali's intuition was belatedly recognized by some associations that have followed that path. It took fascism in power in Italy and the United States to trigger a stronger reaction from the LGBTQIA+ movement. The defeat of an anti-discrimination bill that parliament has been trying to pass in various forms for 30 years wasn't enough. Nor was it enough that in all these years we've only passed one discriminatory law on civil unions, which leaves the children* of same-sex couples exposed to the social and institutional violence we now see unfolding with the Varchi law and the cancellation of birth certificates. 

The process of Gender States, born in 2021, was articulated in a long series of national assemblies between Rome, Bologna, Palermo and Turin, and in a series of roundtable discussions that have produced a wealth of material both for analyzing the political situation and potential developments, and for developing viable avenues from an intersectional perspective: gender self-determination; education, schools, and universities; work, welfare, and internal migration; disability and neurodivergence; queer bonds: from affection to care work; bi+ and aspec. 

SG has brought together the struggle of GKN workers and queer struggles, as well as promoting the active involvement of LGBTQIA+ people in unions. The self-determination group developed a proposal to overturn Law 164, taking into account the needs and desires of trans* people, and organized the demonstration on June 18, 2023, in San Donà di Piave following the suicide of Chloe Bianco. The families group has developed a list of legislative proposals regarding the recognition of emotional bonds and care work. The disability and neurodivergence and bi+ and aspec groups have been the first attempts to create national spaces for the processing and discussion of these subjectivities. 

Saturday, March 29 in Rome we felt very distant from all this, in an assembly that did not see, contrary to what was advertised, a large participation of radical movements, Indeed, their absence was in stark contrast to the call. To determine a new direction for the movement, it's important to begin with honesty: the movements did not respond to the call of the 29th. The groups present at the assembly were those that have always maintained a dialogue with associations and, indeed, for years now, have been committed to building increasingly strategic convergences, professing the dangers of the association/movement dualism, which has always weakened our struggle. 

Let's start by asking ourselves: why haven't the transfeminist, anti-racist, anti-fascist, and environmental movements responded? Perhaps because simply naming and calling them out isn't enough and risks being perceived as exploitation. Broadening our voices and building networks against all forms of oppression rooted in fascism and patriarchy is essential for us in the face of the new far right. But to engage the movements, we need to create truly accessible spaces for all subjectivities, understand and exchange different struggle practices, and be able to share visibility and voice. Are LGBTQIA+ organizations ready to do this? Are we ready to do this?

We have some suggestions for the comrades of the Road of Rights:

• We propose that the assembly on March 29th in Rome be not the last, but the first of a long-awaited journey of discussion and co-construction.
• We propose that the imagery of radicality not only influences the aesthetics and communication of the May 17 mobilization but above all permeates the contents
• We propose that participation, horizontality and democracy be implemented more effectively in the work in view of the mobilization: all the tables must be able to continue their work, it is important to create a space for discussion even if virtual.
• We propose that the value of critical participation be recognized and that internal dissent within the community not be demonized. 
• We propose that the path of the Road of Rights should not be positioned as a starting point but as a stage in continuity with the gay policies of the last decade carried out by both associations and movements, so that they can truly flow into a united mobilization.

This open letter is intended to be a collaborative and collaborative document. To sign it or respond, send an email to [email protected]. The updated version is available on our website.

The article IS A RADICAL AND UNITED MAY 17TH POSSIBLE? comes from Keep.

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