Analyysi – Punamusta Liekki #16/syyskuu 2025
Author: Gaël Rinzler
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s contempt for the separation of powers is nothing new. Her abuse of decree laws to circumvent parliamentary oversight, her clashes with the judiciary and her relentless persecution of dissident voices have been widely reported around the world.
If that conjures up the image of another world leader in particular, the similarities keep on coming. The Meloni and Trump administrations share another bizarre obsession: one with transgender and LGBTQ+ people.
Recently proposed bills n. 2271 (Amorese), 2278 (Sasso) and 2423 (Valditara) all aim to harm LGBTQ+ people and erase any mention of their existence.
If passed, the Amorese bill would allow parents to opt their children out of receiving any education on sexuality, affectivity and ethics1. It trails behind, if not directly emulates, Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, with the only exception being that discussion of these themes is left to the parents’ choice… for now.
But don’t rest easy, because what the Amorese bill lacks, the Sasso bill provides for. In its first article, the bill limits the “alias career” (a program implemented in some schools that allows transgender students to change their name in the school records) behind a gender dysphoria certificate and an expensive legal process, completely nullifying the program’s utility.
It then proceeds to ban transgender students from using their preferred bathroom and participating in sports competitions of their chosen gender.
Still unsatisfied, Sasso and Co. continue reiterating the contents of the Amorese bill, only to specify later in the same article that discussion of any theme concerning “gender fluidity or identity or sexual orientation, which may promote, even implicitly, gender or sexual transition” is strictly prohibited. Additionally, sexual education is banned in schools up to the 14th year of age, save for basic education on human reproduction already included in the school’s program2.
Lastly, but not to be outshined, are the thirty-two pages of prolixity3 presented by Meloni’s Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara. Which are, you guessed it, just a lengthy reiteration of the Amorese bill.
The reason behind such redundancy and repetition is not incompetence, as one might think, but rather a clever manipulation tactic often used by right-wing law-makers: by “flooding the zone with shit” (a term coined by Steve Bannon during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign4) and then adopting a “lesser of two evil” approach, these politicians succeed in advancing their right-wing policies little by little.
The Amorese and Sasso bills were never presented with the expectation that they’d turn into law, but rather as an introductory ruse to open up discussion of these themes and to lessen the perceived impact of the Valditara bill. Out of the three, the Valditara bill seems rather well put and far more moderate, and its language reflects genuine worry for the regulatory gaps in our educational system rather than an obsession with a specific theme.
This reading is also confirmed by the amount of observable effort put into these bills. The language of the first two is vague, their precise application deliberately left out… while the Valditara bill has gone through technical and normative analysis and it outlines in good detail how to integrate the law in the decision-making process.
Regardless of how the tide will turn, one must remember that these bills exist in clear contravention of WHO guidelines5 (which promote Comprehensive Sexuality Education, or CSE) and EU resolutions6.
Just in 2019, in a resolution on the future of the LGBT+ List of Actions, the European Parliament urged the Commission to support EU member states in implementing high-quality, comprehensive sexuality and relationship education programmes that provide information and education on SRH and rights in a way that is non-judgemental, framed positively and inclusive of LGBT+ people6.
Sources:
- Bill n. 2271, 25.02.2025, “Introduzione del requisito del consenso informato dell’esercente la responsabilità genitoriale per la partecipazione dello studente minorenne ad attività scolastiche vertenti su materie di natura sessuale, affettiva o etica”, camera.it (government website) ↩︎
- Bill n. 2278, 27.02.2025, “Norme sul riconoscimento dell’identità di genere in ambito scolastico e sul consenso informato preventivo delle famiglie per la partecipazione dello studente minorenne ad attività scolastiche su temi concernenti la sessualità e l’affettività”, camera.it (government website) ↩︎
- Bill n. 2423, 23.05.2025, “Disposizioni in materia di consenso informato in ambito scolastico”, camera.it (government website) ↩︎
- David Remnik, The New Yorker, 30.07.2018, “Trump vs. the Times: Inside an Off-the-Record Meeting” ↩︎
- WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research (SRH), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (publisher), 14.03.2018, “International technical guidance on sexuality education” ↩︎
- Michielsen, Kristien & Ivanova, Olena, Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, February 2022, “Comprehensive sexuality education: why is it important?” ↩︎
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