Bologna, October 9, 2013 – A meeting was held today in Rome between Arcigay and the Swedish minister, accompanied by the Swedish ambassador to Italy, Ruth Jacoby. “We explained to them,” reports Flavio Romani, president of Arcigay, “the disheartening situation in Italy regarding LGBT rights. Minister Ohlsson, in particular, expressed great surprise to learn of the total lack of protection and rights for Italian same-sex couples and of the migration they are forced to undertake to have their unions recognized in Norway or Portugal. For this reason,” Romani continues, “we have asked the Swedish government, through the minister, to lobby at European level for Italy to comply with the standards of equality that characterize most EU countries. We have also urged Sweden to make marriage between non-resident same-sex couples possible on their soil as well and to extend this possibility to Swedish embassies around the world, including the Italian one.” The requests presented by Arcigay during the meeting were delivered to the Minister in a letter.
