Civil unions: The Regional Administrative Court rejects another mayor.

Bologna, December 30, 2016 – "After the Veneto Regional Administrative Court (TAR), which intervened on the resolution of the Municipality of Padua, another Regional Administrative Court (TAR), this time in Lombardy, has rejected the crusade of homophobic mayors": Gabriele Piazzoni, national secretary of Arcigay, comments on the Lombardy Regional Administrative Court's ruling annulling the resolution of the Municipality of Stezzano, in the Bergamo province, which designated a disused office for civil unions, rather than the wedding venue. The TAR also awarded the couple, who, with the assistance of Arcigay and Rete Lenford, filed the appeal, damages estimated at more than €4,000, a sum the Municipality will have to pay them. "We are certainly satisfied with the court's ruling," Piazzoni continues, "which re-establishes a very important principle of justice. Alongside the judicial issue, however, there is also the political one: it is paradoxical that the damage that Mayor Elena Poma has deliberately caused falls on the resources of the community, which also includes the people who suffered that damage. We remember well the pride with which these mayors announced and then implemented explicit discrimination against same-sex couples: the violation of the rules was evident and publicly acknowledged. If Mayor Poma wanted to play the lion, now she cannot be like the ostrich hiding its head in the sand. She should open her wallet and pay the damages out of her own pocket, because the responsibility is hers. Not only that: there are rights, and civil unions are among them, for which LGBTI people have fought in every forum, including legal ones, assuming full responsibility. Therefore, Mayor Elena Poma must now give meaning to her political activity and take responsibility. the burden of her very personal defeat. The president of Arcigay Bergamo Cives, Marco Arlati, raised this issue with the mayor from the outset, without receiving any response. Now, however, this response is a duty, because the mayor must account to her citizens for the damage she has caused. This affair is not just folklore: the recklessness of behavior like that of Mayor Poma, if left unpunished, would have set a very dangerous and serious precedent. But the battle for equality and equal opportunities is written into our Constitution, so it comes from afar and must go much further than we currently stand: it cannot be dismantled with an ordinance. The TAR's ruling is a sign of the health of our democracy, which we welcome with relief and which should be enough to shame any administrator with a shred of self-respect and a sense of institutionality,“ concludes Piazzoni.