Milan, the prefect stops the mayor: stop the recognition of children of same-sex couples

The Municipality stopped by the Prefecture. The prefect of Milan has asked the mayor Beppe Sala to stop recognizing the children of gay and lesbian couples at birth. The Municipality had resumed making awards last July. The certificates made so far remain valid, but it will not be possible to make them in the future. If the Municipality were to continue, the intervention of the Prosecutor must be requested to cancel them.

Starting in July, mayor Beppe Sala had used his powers as head of the civil status office by resuming the recognitions and thus filling a legislative vacuum left by Parliament and the Government on same-parent families. “When the others don’t move, I have to feel the duty to do my part,” Sala said.

The new stop comes directly from the Ministry of the Interior and starts from the transposition of the sentence number 38162 of the Court of Cassation in United Sections of last December. The judges established that children born abroad with surrogacy must be recognized in Italy as children of both parents with adoption in special cases, which requires the approval of a judge, and not with direct transcription to the registry office. A sentence is needed, the transcription is not enough which is simply an administrative act.

The circular of Ministry of 19 January recalls that the Cassation has indicated a stop to the transcripts of the certificates of the children of two fathers born abroad with surrogacy. The prefect of Milan Renato Saccone went further by asking to interrupt the recognition of the children of two mothers born in Italy and reserves the right to give indications on those born abroad always from two women.

These are the cases:

1. Children of two fathers born with surrogacy abroad. In the first place, only the biological father must be transcribed and then the second father with the adoption in special cases, therefore with a proceeding before the Juvenile Court.

2. Children of two mothers born in Italy, thanks to heterologous fertilization done abroad. With the adoption in particular cases they were the first to be recognized, already in 2014. Some mayors then began to register at birth. The Cassation has ruled against the recognition of birth 7 times, the Constitutional Court has asked the legislator to intervene, the courts have given different answers and in this chaos some municipalities have begun to make recognitions of birth by administrative means.

3. Children of two mothers born abroad with a foreign birth certificate. The Cassation has ruled several times that the deeds of the children of two mothers born in countries that recognize lesbian parenthood must be transcribed.

Recognition at birth is strongly requested by the Lgbtqi+ associations because it is a more protective form for children. For the adoption it often takes years and involves a judgment of parenting suitability.

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