Invisible Children: The Fight of LGBTQ+ Italian Families for Their Right To Exist

Italian laws and bureaucracy do not allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children. In Italy, lesbian couples cannot become mothers because IVF is illegal for single women and lesbian couples, and male gay couples cannot become fathers because surrogacy is illegal and punishable by a fine of up to 1 million euros and two years in prison. 

In October 2024, far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party, Brothers of Italy, made surrogacy punishable for gay couples in Italy even if carried out in countries where it is legal, like the United States. In January 2023, a memorandum from the Italian Ministry of the Interior asked all mayors in Italy to cancel and modify the birth certificates of children of LGBTQ+ couples already registered. 

In this reporting project, Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow Camillo Barone travels across multiple Italian regions to meet same-sex parents who are suffering bureaucratic and political persecution, and who have seen their lives changed forever after being threatened with losing their parental rights to their children. This project also features interviews with experts and politicians who have fought for LGBTQ+ rights in Italy.

The resulting picture is one of a country that is doing everything it can to render it impossible for these families to live in peace.