The northern Italian city of Padova has begun to remove the names of non-biological parents from birth certificates, prompted by a new law passed by Giorgia Meloni’s conservative administration.
According to official data, these birth certificates belong to 33 children of Italian lesbian women who were registered as parents in 2017 under the municipal government of Sergio Giordani. As of Thursday, 27 of these documents had been amended to remove the names of non-biological parents.
Giordani was elected mayor in 2017 on a promise to abolish the traditional “mother” and “father” designation on birth certificates, but this was overturned when Meloni’s government ordered local authorities to stop registering children of same-sex parents with both parents’ names.
This means that only the child’s biological parent can be named on birth certificates. Surrogacy is illegal in Italy, and even gay marriage has not been legalized.
The measure also prevents men in same-sex relationships from registering the birth of their children in the names of both fathers. Instead, they must choose one of them to be the legal father.
Back in March, Giordani had said that despite the government ordnance, his office would keep registering the same-sex parents of children.
