ROME, November 22, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In its opening sentence, the Italian government’s document on combating “homophobia” and “discrimination in gender identity,” admits that it was drafted as an “experimental project” in gender ideologies proposed by a resolution at the Council of Europe (CoE).“National Strategy” document outlines an “important and significant multi-year project” to change the social and cultural attitudes of the Italian people and implement “objectives and specific measures” to “give a strong impetus to the process of cultural change.”.
The document, has been adopted by the Ufficio Nazionale Antidiscriminazioni Razziali (UNAR), which immediately began implementing it without discussion by elected representatives in Parliament.
It identifies “homophobia” and “transphobia” as “crimes,” despite their absence from the Italian criminal code, and says they are related to the prevalence in Italian society of traditional male and female social roles. These are classed in the document as “misogyny,” which is “deeply rooted in the cultural fabric and heritage of our country” and has created a “stereotypical role of confinement of women's productive activities to the care of the person and the family.”
Antonio Brandi, a long-time pro-life activist and the publisher of the monthly Notizie Pro-Life, told LifeSiteNews.com that the Italian government has gone even further than the CoE recommendations called for. While the impetus may be coming from a set of determined foreign ideologues based in the Council of Europe, the Italian government has already started “implementing the sexual orientation and gender ideas without parliamentary or public discussion and against our Constitution.”
“The UNAR developed this National Strategy,” Brandi said, “which is clearly an attempt to ‘indoctrinate’ companies, trade unions and schools on the gender identity and free sexual orientation ideologies. The point is that it is being implemented without public discussion and without parliamentary discussion; they are just applying this strategy.”
The CoE resolution demanded that member states overturn all laws “criminalising same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults,” as well as any law marking a difference “with respect to the age of consent for same-sex sexual acts and heterosexual acts.” Member states “should also take appropriate measures to ensure that criminal law provisions which, because of their wording, may lead to a discriminatory application are either repealed, amended or applied in a manner which is compatible with the principle of non-discrimination.”
The 51-page Italian document calls it “unfortunate” that the Italian legal system “still does not provide…a specific law [identifying] the crimes of homophobia and transphobia,” and adds that “on several occasions, Parliament has rejected several proposals of law” to do this.
It notes that the Constitutional Court in March 2010 declared that although the “extension of marriage to people of the same sex,” was currently “inadmissable,” it was up to Parliament to make a “choice of instrument for recognizing the specific rights and duties” of same-sex partnerships.
Italy is known among European countries for retaining broad cultural and social opposition to the homosexual political and social agenda, which has made it a country of particular interests to activists. Ivan Scalfarotto, the parliamentarian who put forward the highly contested bill outlawing “homophobia”, admitted in an interview that the change was intended to quash any opposition to the planned implementation of same-sex civil unions and, ultimately, “gay marriage.”
In an interview this August, Scalfarotto was asked if the homophobia bill precludes laws on civil union or “gay marriage.” He replied “I would say that [the current bill] precedes it…And of course one is logically prior to the other.”
The work of the National Strategy, scheduled to continue from 2013 to 2015, has already begun. Among the initial projects are a set of conferences and “cultural events” at the Universities of Padua and Milan on methods of changing “Italian attitudes” towards homosexuality and “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
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Brandi said that he met earlier this month this week to discuss the issue with Senator Lucio Malan (PDL) “who quite rightly told me that this strategy is unconstitutional because it contradicts Article 29 of our Constitution that refers to the foundation of family based on marriage.”