Lega Nord member Sasso's anti-gender resolution, Tocca a Noi, and Arcigay are organizing sit-ins across Italy to support sexual and emotional education in schools.
Bologna, September 23, 2024 – “We cannot and will not remain indifferent to Italy's illiberal and antidemocratic drift under the Meloni government. We feel the duty and urgency to react and firmly oppose the approval of the Sasso (Lega) resolution banning sexual and emotional education in schools, accusing it of being an expression of a phantom and nonexistent “gender ideology.’
It's up to us and Arcigay explain this way, the choice to promote the protest mobilization – spread throughout the national territory – which will be held Wednesday, September 25th from 6 to 8 pm and will involve associations and collectives, teachers and students, progressive forces and institutional representatives through the organization of sit-ins in 46 squares in Italy: Aosta, Avellino, Bergamo, Bisceglie, Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Campobasso, Catania, Cosenza, Cremona, Cuneo, Florence, Frosinone, Genoa, Grosseto, L'Aquila, Latina, Lecce, Livorno, Mantua, Milan, Modena, Padua, Palermo, Pavia, Pesaro, Pisa, Pistoia, Pomigliano d'Arco, Potenza, Ragusa, Reggio Calabria, Rieti, Rome, Rovereto, Rovigo, Sanremo, Siena, Taranto, Torre del Greco, Trani, Trapani, Trento, Varese and Vicenza.
The message is clear: "A school that liberates all is a school where there is no room for sexist, racist, homophobic, lesbian, transphobic, and ableist prejudice. It is a school that becomes an educational community and a safe space for all who experience it; a school that condemns and rejects hatred and discrimination. But we are also taking to the streets to demand that institutions make a concrete commitment to supporting the sexual and emotional education projects in schools that the Sasso resolution seeks to ban. On the contrary, they represent an indispensable tool for preventing and combating bullying and patriarchal violence, a fundamental safeguard for the protection of reproductive and sexual health and for educating about consent," the associations explain.
But there's more. "The Sasso resolution," the organizers conclude, "is merely the prelude to an anti-LGBTQIA+* law that brings Italy closer to illiberal, antidemocratic countries responsible for numerous human rights violations, such as Orbán's Hungary and Putin's Russia. This is why we cannot stand idly by; we need to form a united front with that silent majority that is currently indecisive, but is on our side. We ask all these people to join us and not leave us alone.".
Over 250 organizations have joined the initiative.
The mobilization manifesto and information on all the squares are available on the website: www.arcigay.it/scuola-libera-tuttz/
