scholarly journals Somewhere over the rainbow: Italy and the regulation of same-sex unions

Modern Italy ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Alessia Donà
Keyword(s):  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
West European Country ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Societal Actors ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Government ◽  
Almost All

While almost all European democracies from the 1980s started to accord legal recognition to same-sex couples, Italy was, in 2016, the last West European country to adopt a regulation, after a tortuous path. Why was Italy such a latecomer? What kind of barriers were encountered by the legislative process? What were the factors behind the policy change? To answer these questions, this article first discusses current morality policymaking, paying specific attention to the literature dealing with same-sex partnerships. Second, it provides a reconstruction of the Italian policy trajectory, from the entrance of the issue into political debate until the enactment of the civil union law, by considering both partisan and societal actors for and against the legislative initiative. The article argues that the Italian progress towards the regulation of same-sex unions depended on the balance of power between change and blocking coalitions and their degree of congruence during the policymaking process. In 2016 the government formed a broad consensus and the parliament passed a law on civil unions. However, the new law represented only a small departure from the status quo due to the low congruence between actors within the change coalition.

scholarly journals Same-Sex Marriages in Canadian Private International Law

2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Jan Jakob Bornheim
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Current Treatment ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Civil Marriage ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
The Government ◽  
C 32

In 2012, the Canadian federal government took a position in court that same-sex couples married in Canada were not legally married if the law of their domicile did not recognize such marriages. As a reaction to the subsequent media reports and political debate, the government introduced Bill C-32 to modify the Civil Marriages Act. This article analyzes the current treatment of same-sex marriages by foreign-domiciled spouses in Canadian private international law, criticizes the changes to the Civil Marriage Act, and replies to a recent academic commentary on the issue.

Freedom’s Frontiers: The Travails of LGBT Travelers

Pólemos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-295
Author(s):  
David Austin ◽  
Mark E. Wojcik
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Positive Change ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Tourist Industry ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The Status

Abstract This article considers the status of same-sex couples whose lawful marriage in one jurisdiction may not be recognized in another, or who may face discrimination and criminal penalties for their sexual orientation. The article surveys positive developments that promote equality for sexual minorities rather than their punishment. The degree of positive change varies across countries. While traveling across borders, sexual minorities are often subjected to strange dislocations in time and space: they can accelerate through centuries of struggle to find freedom in foreign lands, or they can be hurled back into the darkness of the closet or, worse, detained in a prison cell. The article also focuses on some of the positive developments – legal and otherwise – that have led to the growth of a gay tourist industry; some of the problems that gay travelers may potentially encounter when crossing into countries where the legal rights of sexual minorities are not safeguarded; and some potential “solutions” that will allow gay travelers to engage in cross-border travel without feeling that they are being forced back into the limiting borders of the closet’s confines.

scholarly journals Breaking Down Segregation: Shifting Geographies of Male Same-Sex Households Within Desegregating Cities

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Amy Spring
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Sex Partners ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Multiple Processes ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The City ◽  
Racial Ethnic

AbstractFrom 2000 to 2010, the segregation of male same-sex couples from different-sex couples declined in almost all of the nation’s largest cities. This trend toward a more even distribution of male same-sex couples across city neighborhoods calls into question the demographic future of gay neighborhoods. However, it is unclear how exactly male same-sex couples are spatially reorganizing within desegregating cities. Multiple processes could be driving declining segregation, including declining shares of same-sex households within gay neighborhoods, the emergence of gay neighborhoods in new parts of the city, and/or a general dispersal of same-sex couples to almost all neighborhoods. Moreover, it is unclear what characteristics—like urbanicity, housing values, or racial/ethnic composition—define neighborhoods that have gained (or lost) same-sex partners. This chapter uses data from the 2000 and 2010 Decennial Censuses to investigate neighborhood-level changes within desegregating cities. The small number of increasingly segregated cities are also explored. Results indicate that increasing representation of male same-sex households across most neighborhoods and an expanding number of gay neighborhoods are important contributors to the trend of declining segregation. In contrast, the loss of gay neighborhoods from a city was fairly uncommon—most neighborhoods that obtained large concentrations of same-sex partners tended to keep those concentrations over time. Finally, the same residential expansion of same-sex households that occurred within desegregating cities did not occur in cities that experienced increasing segregation. These results have important implications for the spatial organization of same-sex households into the future. The chapter concludes with a discussion and critique of census data for the continued study of the geography and segregation of same-sex partners.

The Missing Concept of Cohabitation of the Couples of the Opposite-Sex in de facto Unions in the Czech Civil Code

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zdeňka Králíčková
Keyword(s):  
Civil Code ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Reasonable Time ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Married Mother ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Registered Partnership ◽  
The Status ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Married Mothers

The paper deals with couples in de facto unions, especially the ones formed by a man and a woman. It seeks to define cohabitation and differentiate the rights and duties of cohabitees from the ones connected with the status relations between both the opposite-sex couples (marriage) and the same-sex couples (registered partnership). As there are seldom any kinds of agreements between cohabitees, special attention is devoted to the relevant legal rules in all the Books of the Czech Civil Code and their applicability to cohabitees during their relationship and after the break-up or upon the death of one of them. It is stressed that there is no difference between children born out of wedlock and within marriage. Once parenthood is legally established, there is no discrimination of non-married mothers and non-married fathers towards the children. And besides, there are special provisions that protect the weaker party: property claims of the non-married mother from the child´s father for a reasonable time and within adequate limits.

Communicative Doubt

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-139
Author(s):  
Méadhbh McIvor
Keyword(s):  
Good News ◽  
Church Members ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Christ Church ◽  
Conservative Christian ◽  
The Individual

This chapter studies the use of biblically inflected speech in political debate. It begins by examining the arguments raised by conservative Christian activists in their campaign to prevent the passage of the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013. Introducing the concept of 'communicative doubt', the chapter argues that there is a sense in which neither 'religious' nor 'secular' arguments are thought to be an appropriate means of conveying Biblical Truth to those who are not (yet) Christian, for what is needed is the intervention of a speaking God. It then explores this doubt as it manifested in the lives of two Christ Church members who had been involved in one of the Christian Legal Centre's earliest cases. Five years on, they remained unsure of whether or not it communicated the Good News they had hoped to share. These doubts, hesitations, and ambivalences speak to the contested place of public Christianity in contemporary England, and to the difficulties faced by those who insist that their faith must go public: the challenge of rendering Christianity legible not only to law and politics, but to the individual men and women who are subject to these worldly institutions.

Bridging Immigration Justice and Prison Abolition

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-136
Author(s):  
Jamila Hammami
Keyword(s):  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
The Status ◽  
Prison Abolition

As a longtime Chicago-based organizer and writer, the author offers a reflection on the status of the immigrant justice movement. One of the first to bring queer and immigration concerns together outside of the issue of binational same-sex couples, the author critiques how undocuqueer activism has focused on identity and stories, thereby entrenching neoliberal logics and erasing labor within the movement.

scholarly journals SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND THE SAME OLD CONSTITUTION*

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2 & 3) ◽  
pp. 2005
Author(s):  
Ronalda Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Do So

The Reference re Same-Sex Marriage1 is not a major opinion on the rights of same-sex couples in Canada, but it is nonetheless an important and fascinating case. There are only a few lines that are about the “rights” of same-sex couples. Did the Supreme Court of Canada “duck” the issue? Was the Court carefully gauging how much or little political capital it had and making a political decision to say as little as possible on this topic? The Court certainly displayed strategic brilliance, but it did not do so in the name of avoiding the “political” hot topic of same-sex marriage. It is factually difficult to maintain the view that the Supreme Court of Canada is loath to enter into this political debate. It has been the lead social institution in Canada in terms of responding to the claims of gays and lesbians to equality in law,2 and it has never been shy of dealing with topics simply because they involve controversial political issues.3 Rather, the Court’s brilliance lies in its minimalist and almost weary tone. This approach had the effect of taking the wind out of the sails of those opposed to same-sex marriage: the same-sex advocates definitely win the constitutional race, but they do so because according to the Supreme Court, there is no provincial constitutional headwind that can stop them. In short, provinces can complain all they want about the federal position in favour of same-sex marriage, but the wedding will go on despite and over their objections to the ceremony.

scholarly journals ‘One can hardly call them homophobic’: Denials of antigay prejudice within the same-sex marriage debate

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Jowett
Keyword(s):  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
The Government ◽  
British Press ◽  
Racist Discourse ◽  
Antigay Prejudice

The United Kingdom’s Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act (2013) was framed by the Government as an equality measure and, as such, those who opposed the legislation were likely to be sensitive to possible accusations of prejudice. This article examines opposition to marriage equality within the British press and explores how denials of homophobia were made. Opponents to same-sex marriage attended to commonsense notions of ‘homophobes’, either by aligning their views with categories of persons not typically considered homophobic or by distancing their views from a homophobic other. Opponents also offered a counter-accusation that it was liberal supporters of same-sex marriage who were intolerant. Parallels are drawn with discursive literature on racist discourse and it appears that despite social scientists’ attempts to expand the concept of antigay prejudice, homophobia is commonly referred to in terms of irrational bigoted individuals.

New Algerian family law reveals resurgent Islamists

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Social Instability ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Government

Subject The women's rights' debate. Significance The National Assembly on March 5 voted a new law setting out harsher sentencing for perpetrators of violence against women. The law does not introduce any major legal innovations, but appears to be a concession to the long-neglected progressives. The bill provoked virulent opposition among Islamist deputies, who declared it contrary to Muslim law and a threat to family stability. The debate around the bill has revealed a resurgence in public acceptance of Islamist political language. In an authoritarian political system that is neither autocratic nor democratic, social and cultural policy provides the main outlet for political debate. Impacts The new law is unlikely significantly to improve the protection of women from violence. Other laws touching on cultural identity will follow, eg new legislation on the status of the Amazigh (Berbers). Such debates are likely to increase as the government seeks to distract from concerns over low oil prices and constitutional reform. A mismanaged cultural identity debate, coupled with limits on the regime's ability to buy social peace, could lead to social instability.

Same-Sex Marriage and Italian Exceptionalism

ICL Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-456
Author(s):  
Matteo M Winkler
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Three Dimension ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Dimension Analysis ◽  
The Status ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Male To Female

Abstract This article unveils Italy’s exceptionalism in recognising and protecting same-sex couples by adopting a three-dimension analysis: constitutional, comparative and supranational. It maintains that, compared to other countries whose courts were sympathetic with the legal claims raised by lesbian and gay people, Italy’s Constitutional Court adopted a totally different approach, reinforcing the heteronormativity of marriage in a way that delayed all efforts to pass a law on same-sex registered partnerships. The Constitutional Court, in particular, interpreted the Constitution, the experience of other nations and supranational law according to heteronormativity, an example that is unique in the comparative context. As an illustration, this article addresses the case Bernaroli vs Ministry of the Interior. In Bernaroli, a male-to-female transgender person wanted to remain married to her wife notwithstanding the transition. The case ignited a heated debate among scholars and questioned the courts’ opinions as to the human rights dynamics surrounding same-sex marriage and, more importantly, about the current role of heteronormativity in marriage law. This article concludes that the legal existence of Bernaroli’s marriage represents a constant challenge to the status quo and highlights the permanent crisis of heteronormativity. After the Austrian Constitutional Court’s recent ruling that declared the law on same-sex domestic partnership to be discriminatory, heteronormativity’s defence became even more untenable, making Italy’s a true exception in the continent’s legal landscape.

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