[ HES ]
[ PDS ]
[ PSC ]
[ PvdA ]
[ Déclaration de Paris ]
We have constituted the National Homosexual Co-ordination inside the PDS, Partito Democratico della Sinistra. The PDS is the party which inherited the traditions of Italian Communist party, the most important left wing socialist/democratic force in post war Italy.
The PDS was born of this tradition in 1991 with other left wing forces subsequently being added to it. Today the party is the majority party in Italy and weightiest force in the ranks of the `Ulivo' central left coalition which has governed Italy since April of 1996.
The co-ordination was born in Autumn last year, at the initiative of a group of militants from the Italian homosexual movement who identified with the overall policy of the PDS. It was the first time in Italy a homosexual organised structure had been given space within a political party. I would like therefore to explain the motives behind this historic decision.
In the last few years, despite a not particularly favourable general climate, the Italian homosexual movement has grown and subdivided. Such subdividing represents not only a quantitative growth (over 200 local structures of various kinds nation-wide and some national organisations among which Arcigay & Arcilesbica, which include the majority of local communities), but also a growth in the complexity, in the type initiatives to be found (consultancies, archives/centres of documentation, groups organised around a specific theme, commercial activities etc.).
This subdividing reflects the ample and diverse array of political positions currently represented within the Italian gay scene and the Italian lesbian & gay movements.
Today, the Italian lesbian and gay movements find themselves in a place where different political cultures live and work side by side, sharing a common dialectic relationship based upon their identification with a common cause. Representatives from the entire spectrum of the Italian left wing (the PDS, Verdi, Rifondazione Comunista) have something united together to work, having the homosexual question as their central objective, with their counterparts from the central right parties: Forza Italia and Alleanza Nazionale.
This last fact is only in appearance paradoxical, if this seems a somewhat obvious under-valuation of the inherently reactionary nature of the Italian right, it is not redeemed by the realisation that today in Italy there are no political forces really willing to accede to and realise the requests of the Homosexual Liberation movement.
The parties of the left have been seen as slow to offer themselves as effective representatives in the battle for the legal equality of the homosexual individuals and couples. In particular the PDS by adopting a timid approach to the question succeeded in producing a widespread sense of estrangement among the lesbian and gay community. Therefore, those people who found themselves living a double militancy, as both homosexuals and card holding party members decided to personally assume responsibility for taking the elaboration of twenty years of fighting for lesbian and gay rights into the internal structure of the party, in order to produce a cultural evolution.
A cultural evolution in the sense that they sought to obtain a full recognition of homosexual rights within the party, with as their overall objective the PDS's active involvement in the promotion of the implementation of the Strasbourg resolution of February 1994.
Those involved in this adventure have decided to do so as party militants, independently from any role may have been held in the homosexual movement. This position was chosen in order to re-affirm the autonomy of the lesbian and gay movement from anyone political force but done in such way that lesbians and gays can find political representation in the party with whom they identify.
In Italy the Strasbourg resolution has yet to be realised. Discrimination in the workplace persists as does social prejudice. Acts of physical violence, often fatal, are frequent. In the last few years sixteen homosexuals have been murdered in the capital alone, and only in a very few cases has light been conclusively shed upon these deaths. This however is only the tip of the iceberg. Other pressures, at times no less violent, are exerted in schools where often, roman catholic teaching staff carry out an operation of defamation towards homosexuals. At school positive images of homosexuality are seldom transmitted, neither are the done so at home where the pervasive catholic culture instills feelings of guilt which do little to facilitate the `coming out' of the adolescent lesbians and gays and their acceptance by their parents.
To all this can be added the various legislative discriminations, regarding homosexual couples who are currently totally deprived of any form of legal recognition: three legislative proposals on civil unions originating from the PDS, Verdi, Rifondazione Comunista parties respectively, have been deposited in parliament, and the time for their discussion unfortunately seems a long way off.
The current Italian political scenario was born in the aftermath of the judicial storm of `Tangentopoli', during which the previous governing forces of the Democrazia Cristiana and the so called Partito Socialista of Mr Craxi fell amidst dramatic accusation of corruption. All this brought about the end of the previous political union of the Catholics and forming of both centre left and centre right wing catholic elements in the new political clearing up process that then took place. The catholic veto against the approval of laws in favour of lesbians and gays comes from all sides and remains strong, thus preventing us from attaining our goals.
For the Italian homosexual population, article 3 of the Italian Constitution has yet to be realised. This article states: `All citizens have equalsocial dignity and are equal in the eyes of the law, with no distinctions being made of the grounds of sex, race, language, religion, political opinion, personal and social conditions'.
In their fight against AIDS: the creation of campaigns for prevention, assistance programs, and the fight against cultural discrimination, the voluntary organisations - both homosexual and non - were for years left alone to confront these problems.
The same organisation continue to be at the front line of the fight, still with few means at their disposal and generally given insufficient attention by the institutions.
Our objective is that the PDS fights, without delay, on behalf of a minority that is again discriminated and toils to find political representation. We have asked, given that is the meeting place for various parts of the left wing reforming spirit, that the PDS appropriates the values of individual liberty, cultural plurality , and full rights for all citizens in the eyes of the law.
In a country in which the catholic culture dominates, we have asked the PDS for a cultural revolution: to fully commit itself to the rights an freedom of the individual based upon the assumption that on a ethical level the are no absolute models, valid for everyone. We have requested that the meeting with the culture of democratic Catholicism be based upon the recognition that a person’s ethical beliefs should find in the state not a place in which to assert themselves but that the state should represent a place for the guardianship of everyone’s rights independent of ethical beliefs and different visions of the world.
We have requested that the PDS fight both for the institution of civil unions as an instrument to recognise stable relationship between persons of the same sex and that it revises the family rights in line with the changes that have taken place in society as a whole.
We have requested that the PDS be active in the fight against AIDS, in order to give strength to the battle.
We have requested that it directs the necessary resources to the voluntary organisations involved, and that it guarantees the effective availability of all new therapies, that it promises that the rights of a minority will not become a tool for political bargaining but that they become wholly integrated into the political values of the Italian left.
At the 2nd national PDS party congress we obtained two important results in this direction. The congress approved, almost unanimously, the tabling of a motion which had already, thanks to the efforts of members of the Co-ordination, been approved in various provincial and regional conferences. This motion stated that the party would promote the application of the Strasbourg resolution and the passing of a law on civil unions among which also those between persons of the same sex. Furthermore an amendment to the first article of the statute presented by our co-ordinator Sergio Lo Giudice, and then voted in by the congress, inserted among the constituent values of the PDS the liberty of sexual orientation.
As could have been predicted, these two actions immediately provoked strong reaction on the part of our catholic allies in the Partito Popolare, and provoked a public distancing from the decisions of the congress by a handful of PDS MP's. The text of the statute already sweeted in order not to offend Catholics has still to be replied to by at the National Commission of Guarantees.
In conclusion, the road ahead is an upward one. In a country where the blackmailing power of the Vatican is still very strong, in which we have a party committed to being at the centre of political marshalling in order to ingratiate itself with the catholic electorate, a determining force in any electoral victory.
Following the birth of our Co-ordination other analogous structures are being created in other parties of the left. Let us hope that together we will succeed in stimulating the Italian left wing to find pride in its values and its culture and fight a battle, non denominational battle, for liberty.