Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced her support of a bill brought to Parliament by her political party, Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), this past June. The proposed legislation is expected to pass and would ban the use of surrogacy abroad, deeming those who do so as criminals facing two years of imprisonment and up to a €1 million fine. When the announcement was made that Meloni was in favor of such a bill, many LGBTQ+ activists became concerned that the ability for same-sex couples to have children via surrogacy would effectively disappear. Same-sex marriage is illegal in Italy and Meloni said in a 2022 interview with the Washington Post that she is against same-sex couples adopting because “what’s best is having a father and a mother.”
Rome: Tuscolano Nord, Feb. 21, 2024. Two rainbow flags hang above the entrance of a driveway on Via Portoferraio. The rainbow flag is the official symbol of LGBTQ+ pride and was created by artist Gilbert Baker in 1978.
Rome, Via della Lungara. Feb. 19, 2024. Alessandro M., a 20-year-old student at John Cabot University from Salerno, sits on a bench in JCUs Lemon Tree Courtyard. “I feel Italy’s policies are restricting queer youth and giving me more of a reason to move out of here,” said M. “I don’t want to stay somewhere in which there are negative thoughts linked to queer people or the thoughts of same-sex couples being unnatural.”
Safe spaces in Rome for the LGBTQ+ community seem to have been preserved despite the socially conservative political atmosphere. Some of these locations include the designated gay bar ComingOut Roma and the bookstore Liberia Antigone, which according to their Instagram, sells LGBTQ+ literature and hosts Queer and Transfeminist events. However, for some of the Italian Gen Z members who identify as LGBTQ+ leaving the country is their only option. Levka Starkova, 20, is a student at John Cabot University who said they identify as trans non-binary and is asexual. Starkova said that they have been able to accept themselves as a member of the LGBTQ+ community but others do not.
Rome: Via della Lungara, Feb. 21, 2024. JCU student Levka Starkova, 20, stands on the rooftop terrace of the Guarini Campus. “To me, Pride means being comfortable with who l am and accepting myself,” Starkova said. “Being femme presenting and it being my assigned sex at birth, it took me some years to feel comfortable with what nonbinary meant to me. I can present however the f** I want to, and nobody can take that away from me.”
“I am lucky that the way I present doesn’t immediately put a target on my back,” Starkova said, “But my experience with clear societal and cultural intolerance toward LGBTQ people has made me more cautious of where I go.”
Rome: Piazza di Monte Citorio, March 12, 2024. A view of the building that holds the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni supports recently proposed legislation that seemingly violates the parental rights of same sex couples.
Starkova said that after graduation, they will pursue a master’s degree at a university somewhere else in Europe. Starkova added that it is a scary time to be in Rome.
“I wouldn’t want to stay in Italy because it is becoming increasingly more hostile toward LGBTQ people,” Starkova said. “The way things are starting to develop, I suspect it will go down a similar route to America.”
Rome: Via Galvani. March 26, 2024. A view of the #RainboWall, an LGBTQ+ Club supported by the Gay Center. The Gay Center is an association providing services and office space for organizations supporting the rights, health and well-being and culture of LGBTQ+ Italians.
Rome: Castro Pretorio, March 27, 2024. ‘Piazza della Repubblica’ is the starting point of the annual Roma Pride Parade, which happens in June to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
Rome: Via di San Giovanni in Laterano. April 8, 2024. The front of the gay bar, ‘Coming Out Roma,’ is decorated with flowers in the color of the rainbow. The bar is on a road that was officially designated as “Gay Street” in 2007.
Rome: Via di San Giovanni in Laterano. April 8, 2024. The bar, ‘My Bar’, sits right next to ‘Coming Out Roma.’ It is considered an LGBTQ+ inclusive space.
Rome: Via Giuseppe Mezzofanti. April 9, 2024. In Quartiere Primavalle the art piece “Tell Me a Story,” painted by Luis Gomez remains from the street art proiect “Muracci Nostri.” This painting depicts two partially unclothed women intimately embracing each other.
The graffiti tagged by “Dimilli” is painted with the words “Occhi su che piove la bellezza,” written above naked women sitting beside each other.
thematthewrome.com 