Gender Fundamentalism and Heteronormativity in the Political Discussion About Lesbian and Gay Parenthood

Abstract

in reifying the uniqueness of heterosexual relationships and parenthood.Lesbian and gay parenthood was the preeminent bone of contention over the three-yearslong debate because of Section number 5 of the draft bill, which would recognize the right of one partner to adopt the biological children of the other partner, thus supposedly introducing a view of the family independent of the two genders (Garbagnoli, 2014). As a result, the section of the bill on adoption rights was so controversial that it had to be deleted in order for the law to pass, thus continuing to alienate lesbians and gays from kinship (Weston, 1991) and reasserting the control of heteronormativity over Italian politics despite the fact that the country has partially filled the legislative gap on this matter. This article investigates the parliamentary debate on the recognition of same-sex couples and their children that took place in Italy during the period from Specifically, through a Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 2001(Fairclough , 2003 of the speeches of Parliamentarians who opposed the section of the bill concerning lesbian and gay parenthood, the study addresses the following research questions: What are the discursive strategies currently used by the hegemonic heteronormative power to maintain the exclusive heterosexual access to reproduction and kinship? Did the hegemonic model of gender intelligibility inform legislative processes relating to family life and, if so, how?By framing the analysis within a poststructuralist feminist framework, the paper sheds light on the practices of power-knowledge (Foucault, 1978) that have been deployed to reallocate reproduction and kinship within the heterosexual matrix (Butler, 1990) once the parliamentary debate in Italy issued a challenge to the hegemonic heteronormative power. Moreover, this research offers a contribution to the understanding of how the conservative resistance to non-heterosexual families supports the institutionalization of sexualities and reproduction within the patriarchal order, which creates normative standards on the practices of motherhood (Hays, 1996;Rich, 1977) and, at

Heteronormativity in Italy: Psychometric Characteristics of the Italian Version of the Heteronormative Attitudes and Beliefs Scale

“…One possible explanation underlying such a relationship, as well as the associations of heteronormativity with homonegativity and religiosity in Italy, is that the Vatican State, despite being an independent State, is situated in Italy and thus cannot fail to influence the socio-cultural climate; moreover, the Vatican State often interferes in Italian public affairs, especially those related to family life and sexualities (Garelli, 2007), thus reinforcing a negative view of SGM individuals and indirectly promoting sexual and gender prejudice (Worthen et al, 2017). Furthermore, as suggested by Lasio, Congiargiu, De Simone, and Serri (2019), traditional values promoted by the Catholic Church find fertile ground in the Italian social context, in which Catholic ethical values remain dominant and accepted by most of the population and shared by both center-right and center-left politicians.…”

Cross‐Cultural Validity of Bowen Theory in Southern European Countries

“…In Italy, as in other southern European countries, intergenerational solidarity within nuclear and extended families has traditionally been the most important source of support for dependent elderly people (Da Roit, ). Moreover, recent studies (Lasio, Congiargiu, De Simone, & Serri, ; Lasio, Putzu, Serri, & De Simone, ; Lasio & Serri, ; Lasio, Serri, De Simone, & Putzu, ) have shown how conservative standards on gender roles and the ideal of women as mainly focused on mothering are still deep‐rooted in the country and this implies a strong opposition toward any challenge to the traditional model of the family.…”

Parenting Desire and Minority Stress in Lesbians and Gay Men: A Mediation Framework

“…76/2016 was specifically around the parental abilities of LG people, who were perceived by the opposition parties to be inadequate parents [ 11 ]. Along the same lines, a recent study by Lasio et al [ 37 ], analyzing the speeches of Parliamentarians who expressed their opposition to LG parenthood, revealed that discourses were organized around a hegemonic model of gender, and that they contributed to reiterating old models of motherhood, maintaining the institutionalization of sexuality and reproduction within a patriarchal logic. These findings seem to be supported by some recent Italian studies, in which it has been reported that Italy is a strongly heteronormative [ 20 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ] and genderist [ 43 , 44 ] society that still tends to equate women to mothers.…”