• Giorgia Meloni is set to become Italy’s first woman premier at the head of its most right-wing government since WWII.
• LGBTQ advocates fear she could adopt anti-gay policies as prime minister.
• Meloni, a Christian, has sprinkled speeches with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and conservative statements.

The election victory of a right-wing alliance in Italy has alarmed LGBTQ advocates, who fear that nationalist leader Giorgia Meloni will implement anti-gay policies as prime minister, undermining their efforts to advance equality.

Meloni, who is set to become Italy’s first female premier and the leader of the country’s most right-wing government since World War II, has harshly criticised “gender ideology” and “the LGBT lobby” just months before the election.

However, she has downplayed her party’s post-fascist roots, portraying it as a mainstream group similar to Britain’s Conservatives.

So, what does her appointment to lead Italy’s new government mean for the LGBTQ community?

Meloni, a Christian, has peppered his speeches with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric as well as conservative statements on family issues.

“Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology, yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death,” she said in a June speech to supporters of Spain’s rightist Vox party in Marbella, southern Spain.

However, in recent weeks, Meloni has repeatedly denied any plans to roll back abortion or LGBTQ rights legislation, while reiterating her opposition to same-sex adoptions and surrogacy.

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However, just days before the election, a senior member of her Brothers of Italy (FdI) organisation suggested that same-sex parenting was not normal.

The FdI’s culture spokesman, Federico Mollicone, reiterated his criticism of a “Peppa Pig” episode that featured a polar bear with two mothers.

He went on to say that “homosexual couples are not legal, are not allowed” in Italy, despite the fact that the country legalised same-sex civil unions in 2016, a reform that the FdI opposed in parliament.

In its election manifesto, FdI does not specifically mention LGBTQ rights, but instead calls for “support for childbearing and the family.”

Meloni wrote on Facebook to an LGBTQ activist who confronted her earlier this month, “I believe a child has the right to grow up with a father and a mother.”

According to the advocacy group ILGA-Europe, Italy ranks 23rd out of the 27-member European Union in terms of legal protections for LGBTQ people.

It is the only major Western European country that has not legalised same-sex marriage, though some microstates such as Monaco and San Marino have.

Although same-sex civil unions are legal in Italy, they do not provide gay couples with the same rights as married heterosexual couples, particularly when it comes to parenting. Same-sex couples are not eligible for joint adoption.

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