ARCIGAY MEETS WITH MINISTER ROCCELLA: "VIOLENCE IS GROWING, THE GOVERNMENT MUST INTERVENE."“
Rome, February 11, 2025 – “We have not come here to open negotiations, but rather to hold institutions, and especially the government, accountable. Faced with the spiraling upsurge in violence against LGBTQIA+ people, institutions must publicly condemn and implement appropriate measures, in accordance with the UNAR strategy, which is still largely ignored today. Because silence is complicit, just like looking the other way. Italy is among the countries the international community observes with the greatest concern: a few days ago, the United Nations issued 19 recommendations for actions and measures to be implemented to protect LGBTQIA+ people. Because in Italy, discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity remain a significant and urgent social problem.” With these words: Natasha Maesi And Gabriele Piazzoni, respectively president and general secretary of Arcigay, commented on the meeting with the Minister for Equal Opportunities upon exiting Eugenia Roccella. The meeting had been publicly requested by the association in mid-January, during a period when numerous news reports of attacks and violence against LGBTQIA+ people were appearing in the news.
To combat this phenomenon, Maesi and Piazzoni reiterated to the Minister the need, first and foremost, to introduce programs in schools that promote sexual education, affectivity, and consent. From a legislative perspective, the Mancino-Reale law must be extended to include hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, and disability. Furthermore, it is necessary to continue to support anti-discrimination centers, increasingly, and to provide psychological and legal support to victims, launch national campaigns to combat stereotypes and prejudice, train law enforcement officers to recognize and manage hate crimes, strengthen anti-discrimination regulations in the workplace, and promote inclusive corporate policies. Arcigay also called on the Ministry to coordinate policies to prevent and combat violence through institutional discussions open to associations and to improve data collection on hate crimes for targeted interventions.
To the Minister, Arcigay indicated as its political horizon the demands of the platform “The Road of Rights” (www.lastradadeidiritti.it), which include: the extension of equal marriage, access for all couples and singles to adoption and assisted reproductive technologies (ART), and the recognition of sons and daughters at birth, the recognition of gender identity and its depathologization, the ban on unnecessary surgical interventions on intersex minors, the banning of harmful and scientifically unfounded conversion practices, the full implementation of Law 194/78 on abortion, and the request to update Law 135/90 on HIV/AIDS. "These are all battles of civilization that in other European countries are welcomed by governments regardless of their political affiliation," said Maesi and Piazzoni. "From our point of view, we will continue to urge the Ministry to do its part," they concluded.
