When she went into labor, Valentina Bagnara, 36, was with her partner, Daniela Ghiotto, 45, in a car, racing from Vicenza, their hometown, to Padua, where she had to give birth. The two teachers would have gladly avoided the 40-kilometer journey between the two Venetian cities but only one of the municipalities, thanks to a committed mayor, would allow them to be equally recognized as their daughter's mothers. Conceived in Denmark by medically assisted reproduction (MAR), Caterina was born on May 19, 2022, and her birth certificate confirms that she is the daughter of Bagnara and Ghiotto.

A year later, however, in June 2023, the Padua public prosecutor's office challenged the validity of the document and, like 36 other children of same-sex couples registered in the city, Caterina was cast into legal limbo. In the meantime, the far-right government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had come to power and in an Italy already lagging in terms of LGBTQ+ rights, the stability of same-sex parent families became even more precarious. "We are now political targets," said Ghiotto.

The legal battle initiated by the Padua prosecutor, in which Caterina's mothers are embroiled along with 32 other families, is still ongoing. The matter at stake is the fundamental right of homosexual individuals to establish a family. It originated from a circular issued by the interior ministry headed by Matteo Piantedosi, a senior civil servant close to the far-right League, ordering prefects to remind Italy's mayors not to include the names of two parents of the same sex on birth certificates.

Victories ... and yet more appeals

The directive specifically targeted municipalities like Padua, where this practice had taken hold due to a legal loophole and the discretion of progressive mayors, whom Ghiotto calls "conscientious objectors." Once the new guidelines were established, the city's prosecutor demonstrated particular zeal in seeking to annul birth certificates dating back to 2017. "We learned through the press that I might no longer be recognized as my daughter's mother, that I might need to show a power of attorney to pick her up from school in the future," said Ghiotto.

Cities like Milan and Bergamo (in Lombardy) are also affected but the number of children involved and their ages have made Padua the focal point of a new struggle for LGBTQ+ rights advocates in Italy. The first victory came in November 2023 when, following a change in prosecutor, the public prosecutor asked the court to refer the matter to the Constitutional Court. Then, in March, the appeal to invalidate the birth certificates was dismissed, leading to another appeal by the interior ministry, which was again rejected in July by the Venice Court of Appeal. Meanwhile, in June, the court in Lucca, Tuscany, referred a similar case to the Constitutional Court, scheduling the next judicial hearing for December for lesbian couples and their children.

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