The Anti-gender and Gender-critical Roots of the Italian Anti-trans Parent Activism

Between 2020 and 2021, the fight against the hate crimes bill proposal on discrimination and violence based on sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability marked a pivotal moment in the ongoing mobilization against LGBTQ+ rights in Italy. Proposed by the main center-left party, the Bill proposal encountered a strong opposition both by right-wing and by MPs of the progressive area itself. In particular, the category of gender identity was targeted as a danger, a confused notion, a trojan horse of the “gender ideology”, etc. The Bill first adopted by the Lower House was later blocked at the Senate, thanks to the decisive action of Senator Simone Pillon, a founder and member of the Italian anti-gender movement, elected in 2018 with the radical right party of the League, led by Matteo Salvini. Anti-gender groups such as ProVita & Famiglia and Family Day, who had been campaigning against "gender theory" and "LGBT ideology" for over a decade, led this battle from outside the Parliament, online and in the streets, but also inside the Senate, during the parliamentary auditions to which they were massively invited to participate