In the four corners of the world, and it is in Europe.
Italy has begun removing lesbian mums’ names from their children’s birth certificates, as part of the government’s crackdown on the rights of LGBTQ+ parents.Pink NewsBy Chantelle BillsonJuly 18, 2023The move follows right-wing populiat PM Giorgia Meloni's announcement in March that state agencies should no longer register the children of same-sex couples.So far, 27 families in the northern city of Padua have received a warning letter, affecting the lives of 33 children.Michela Leidi and her wife Viola are reportedly one of the first three lesbian couples to have the policy inflicted upon them.Leidi said she “cried for 10 days” upon receiving her letter.“It was as if I did not exist,” she said, according to LGBTQ+ Nation. “I suspect the government is afraid that a family that looks different, like ours, can be as happy – maybe even happier, sometimes – as a traditional family.[…]Italy legalised same-sex civil unions in 2016 while under a centre-left government but refrained from issuing full adoption rights because of a suggestion that it would somehow encourage surrogate pregnancies, which have yet to be legalised.After winning the election in 2022, prime minister Meloni signalled that she is preparing to roll back legislation on abortion rights and, while denying being homophobic, she has expressed her opposition to what she described as “gender ideology” and the “LGBT lobbies.”
Gee where have we heard that before… maybe from the Republicans? It is the same ol’ song and dance of right-wing conservatives.
“These children are being orphaned by decree. This is a cruel, inhumane decision,” left-wing politician and LGBTQ+ rights advocate Alessandro Zan said.
I bet the Republicans are thinking… “Hmm… I wonder how we can do that here?”
It is like some slime slowly spreading across the globe.
EU ObserverBy Eszter Zalan and Elena Sanchez NicolasJune 21, 2023Italy is debating a crackdown on surrogate parents, seen as an attack on LGBTI families, while Spain's far-right party goes after the rainbow flag.Italian MPs are debating a law that would make it illegal for Italian citizens to engage a surrogate mother in another country, with prison terms of up to three years and fines of up to €1m.A 2004 law already banned surrogacy in Italy.The new surrogacy regime is backed by prime minister Georgia Meloni and adds to fears in Italy's LGBTI community that her far-right government will erode their civil rights.The proposed ban would also apply to opposite-sex couples, but critics see that as camouflage for its real intention — to stop homosexual couples raising children.The surrogacy bill comes in a wider context of curbs on non-biological parents, which have already hurt many 'rainbow families'.The right-wing in Europe are copying the Republicans, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t had some help from far right Christian religions.But she wants to be seen as a defender of Christian values against what she calls "gender ideology" and the "LGBTI lobby"."A child deserves only the best: a mother and a father," she said in March.But if her anti-LGBTI rhetoric is meant to be populist, that kind of discourse appears to be less and less popular with Italian public opinion.
But the people realize that this is how Mussolini came to power in 1922 but instead of else he used the backs of Jews.
And it is now just Italy but also neighboring Spain.
Following last month's regional elections, an alliance of Spain's centre-right People's Party (PP) and far-right Vox has agreed to stop using the rainbow flag on public buildings in a small village in Valencia.The coalition also agreed to substitute language against "gender-based violence" for the condemnation of violence in general in official papers.The village crackdown has raised public concern amid fears it could be rolled out nationally, if PP wins the general election on 23 July and forms a coalition government with Vox.Earlier this week in Madrid, Vox paid for a huge billboard campaign denigrating feminist, rainbow, communist, and Catalan independence logos in a mixed bag of hate.
It is spreading around the world just like COVID did, where will a safe space for us be?
And the rest of the EU is not immune!
Belgrade (AFP) – As Pride events got underway in Europe in June, disinformation and hate speech targeting the LGBTQ community spread across social media, triggering extreme online responses, including incitements to violence.France 24June 6, 2023Advocacy groups across Europe said the deluge of toxic content online is part of an overall trend of rising anti-LGBTQ sentiment worldwide. But the community is coming under particular pressure during public events -- including those associated with Pride, they noted.The surge in online disinformation and vitriol is all the more worrying after a spate of violence during Pride events last summer in Europe.One social media post in Polish falsely stating that the army would create "LGBT units" was shared across Telegram, Twitter and Facebook in Serbia.That prompted some users to comment that the new soldiers should be "burned at the stake", while others praised Hitler's persecution of gay men.Another false claim, that the Arc de Triomphe in Paris had been turned into a rainbow art installation, went viral in multiple European languages. Facebook users responded with slurs -- one person calling for LGBTQ people to be burned and executed.In Hungary, where government and pro-government media personalities often use anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, Pride celebrations were referred to online using derogatory, homophobic slurs.The tactics are the same around the world, spread lies to create fear. The are following Goebbels, minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich play book… create fear and demonize them.
The worldwide offensive against the rights of LGBTQ+ peopleThe community, which is celebrating International Pride Day, has been hit by both the rise of the far right and hate speech in democratic countries and by the wave of religious extremism in authoritarian regimesEi PlaisBy Silvia Blancoandrea Garcia BarojaJune 28, 2023Whenever the rights of LGBTQ+ people move forward in the world, be it with laws that recognize same-sex marriage or the administrative identity of trans people, there is backlash, to a greater or lesser degree. The historical struggle of the LGBTQ+ community, which today celebrates Pride Day, is full of advances and setbacks, but now that dynamic is rapidly going backwards. And it is happening all over the world.The offensive can be clearly seen in several countries of the European Union, fueled by a far right that has found that attacks on LGBTQ+ rights can be a powerful electoral and ideological tool. This is the case in Hungary and Poland, where there are doubts about the administrations’ democratic rigor, and in Italy, where the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni is seeking to block the legal recognition of families with same-sex parents. Spain, which has been consolidating LGBTQ+ rights for almost two decades, recently approved one of the most progressive laws to protect the LGBTQ+ community, but the so-called trans law is now under attack by the conservative Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox, which have put it in the spotlight ahead of the general elections on July 23.If in democracies, hate speech and the political use of LGBTQ+ rights are being utilized as an ideological weapon that poisons public discourse and puts the physical safety of LGBTQ+ people at risk, authoritarian regimes and dictatorships such as Russia and Saudi Arabia are penalizing — with the death penalty in the case of Saudi Arabia and Iran — marginalizing and erasing any expression of sexual diversity. In 32 of the 54 countries in Africa, homosexuality is prohibited, as an ultra-conservative religious trend sweeps the content and grows, almost contagiously, in more tolerant countries such as Senegal.
It is a scary time not only for us but for all the freedom loving peoples everywhere as Fascism and authoritarianism spread around the world.
I will be away at a B&B in Vermont for a cookout until Monday evening, all my posts will be pre-written.
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