Disobedience and resistance: Italian same‐sex parents facing social and political discrimination

This article examines how same‐sex parent families in Italy navigate a legal framework that denies them formal recognition, acknowledging only biological parents while leaving social parents without legal protections. The article analyzes two key interventions by the Meloni government: first, the directive to cease recognizing children of same‐sex couples and the retroactive challenge to existing birth certificates; and second, the introduction of Bill C. 887 (the ‘Varchi law’), which criminalizes surrogacy as a ‘universal crime’ even when performed legally abroad. Through ethnographic analysis, the article demonstrates how these political actions deliberately undermine the transparency and visibility strategies that Italian same‐sex families have developed to document their parental roles and seek social and legal recognition. These families’ practices of meticulous documentation and public visibility constitute daily acts of resistance against state discrimination, yet face increasing pressure from a government agenda that reasserts heterosexual nuclear family primacy.