Rome (NEV), November 13, 2020 – First green light from the House of Deputies to the bill on homotransphobia, with 265 votes in favor, 193 against (right-wing parties) and 1 abstained. The text, named after the majority speaker and deputy of the Democratic party, Alessandro Zan, now goes to the Senate.
Giorgio Rainelli, president of the Faith and homosexuality Protestat network (R.E.F.O.) and co-coordinator of the Faith and Homosexuality Commission of the Baptist, Methodist and Waldensian churches, declares “After years of struggles, the law that protects LGBTQIA people is finally approved in the House of Deputies, despite the strong opposition from the most backward right. A step forward has been made in recognizing and protecting the rights not only of the LGBTQIA people, but of everyone rights”.
“We possibly – continues Rainelli – may talk about the beginning of the end of discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation. We now need an awareness campaign aimed at removing cultural obstacles to combat those who still see equal rights as a threat. The mobilization for the approval of this law has been strong not only among LGBTQIA people, but also in civil society and this is an indication that times are changing”.
Finally, from the REFO president comes “an appeal to everyone: it is necessary to have the courage to come forward, when one is the object of homobitransphobia, or of misogenic attacks, it is no longer time to hide, but to report – without shame or fear – situations at risk. Because, to paraphrase Karl Marx, “we have nothing to lose but our chains”. As believers in the God who “acts with justice and defends all the oppressed” (Psalm 103,6) we can only be satisfied with the approval in a branch of the Parliament – which we hope will follow that of the Senate – of this law which opens new horizons to the inclusion process of everyone also in society”.
The parliamentary process of the bill, which began more than a year ago, has been long and troubled: the text arrived in the House of Deputies after having undergone several changes, the result of a complex mediation within the same majority. The center-right opposed the law since the very beginning, judging the measure to be harmful to freedom, and protested in the courtroom, at the time of the vote.
