Italy and LGBTQ+ rights: a brief overview
In order to better analyse how and to what extent African LGBTQ+ asylum seekers are protected within a first landing country such as Italy, it is fundamental to understand how Italy itself implements policies to guarantee its LGBTQ+ community rights. This is, indeed, closely linked to the means the government adopts to recognise and protect LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.
According to the data collected by ILGA in its “Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of LGBTI People in Europe and Central Asia" and displayed through an interactive map, over the past ten years, Italy’s implementation of norms to guarantee LGBTQ+ rights has been fluctuating. A peak was reached in 2018, two years after the Italian Parliament approved the law on civil unions, also known as the “Cirinnà law”. Thanks to this, Italy became the 27th country in Europe to legally recognise same-sex couples.
Nonetheless, before, during and after its approval, the law was followed by criticisms specifically related to same sex partners’ right to adopt children and surrogate motherhood, two measures that are not included in the Cirinnà law and that were and still are instrumentalised by the right-wing coalition currently in government. Surrogate motherhood, in particular, was defined by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as “an inhuman practice”, who also declared to openly support a bill that would make the practice a “universal crime”.
In 2024, Italy has been ranked 35th out of 48 countries for LGBTQ+ rights, thus sitting near the bottom of EU ranking with 25.41% points, followed by Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.
According to ILGA, indeed, “Italy is currently one of the countries in the EU facing the challenge of rapidly deteriorating rule of law and democratic standards, as well as direct attacks on fundamental rights of vulnerable groups, including LGBTQ+ people.”
Hate speech is openly perpetuated by the current government who has vowed to tackle the so-called “LGBTQ+ lobby”. Moreover, anti - LGBTQ+ hate crimes, including rape, assault, murder and beatings have continued and escalated during the past months. In addition, on the occasion of the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT), on the 17th May 2024, the Italian government refused to sign the “Declaration on the continued advancement of the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons in Europe” coordinated by the Belgian Presidency of the EU, in which signatories pledged to support improved access to rights for all LGBTQ+ people, because it too closely follows the already boycotted national draft law to criminalise hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community proposed in 2018 by the Democratic Party. Neither did the Italian government sign the Joint ministerial declaration on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Biphobia, Transphobia and Intersexphobia, which was signed by 32 member States of the Council of Europe.
LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Italy: lights and shadows of the reception process
Pinpointing the exact number of LGBTQ+ individuals seeking asylum in Italy is not easy. Italy is, indeed, one of the European countries that does not collect data on the reasons why people apply for international protection, including the protected grounds of SOGI, acronym for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (that the current government plans to remove from the asylum law). Data collected from Eurostat Database and shown on the Asylum Information Database (aida) shows that in the top 10 countries of origin of asylum seekers in Italy in 2023, six are African countries and three criminalise LGBTQ+ individuals.
This is the case of Tunisia, Guinea and Nigeria: they all criminalise same-sex sexual activity between both men and women. Moreover, evidence shows that in Guinea LGBTQ+ individuals face harassment and persecution by law enforcement officials and in Nigeria the law has been enforced in recent years: sentences include a maximum penalty of death by stoning. Yet, on the 25th March, in 2023, Nigeria was included in the list of so-called “safe countries of origin”, and so was Gambia, even though homosexuality is clearly criminalised, and no exceptions were provided for at-risk categories, such as LGBTQ+ individuals.
Consequently, today, Ella Anthony and her partner Doris Ezuruike Chinonso, two Nigerian women who obtained asylum in Italy in 2015 on LGBTQ+ grounds, would not be welcomed on the grounds of their well-founded fear of anti-LGBTQ+ persecution back home. “Certainly, life here in Italy isn't 100% what we want. But let's say it's 80% better than in my country”, said Chinonso, who also added that in Nigeria “if you're lucky you end up prison. If you're not lucky, they kill you”.
Notwithstanding the current government’s hostile attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community, both from a national and international point of view, civil society has been putting good practices in place in order to answer LGBTQ+ refugee needs. For example, the LGBTQ+ non-profit association Arcigay started working with LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in 2008, when it launched the “Immigration and Homosexuality” project. As explained on the Arcigay’s website, “since then, many local Arcigay committees, independently or in collaboration with other actors, have opened reception, guidance and support desks for LGBTI asylum seekers”. In 2017, Arcigay launched the Migranet program which aims to network the system of Arcigay's asylum seekers' counters.
“Even within Italy”, indeed, as noted by the Arcigay activist Antonella Ugirashebuja, “The options vary widely from region to region, with the better-funded north offering more services than the less-developed south”. In fact, out of the seven LGBTQ+ shelters located in Italy, the southernmost can be found in Naples, and even in the capital, Rome, there are only two shelters specifically designated for LGBTQ+ migrants, CASA+ and Casa Refuge LGBT, the first shelter and protection facility in Italy for young people who have suffered discrimination or violence due to their sexual identity.
Conclusions
Concluding, it is necessary to restate a truth that represents the key to understanding why no rapid and ultimate solution will be found to the question of how to properly engage with LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. Even though homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 and so has been decriminalised by many countries around the world, the path towards an actual overlapping of de jure and de facto acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community is long and full of obstacles and far from being reached.
While analysing and looking at the conditions that force African LGBTQ+ asylum seekers to flee from their home-countries to try and find a safe heaven to freely live their lives, we must bear in mind that even in European countries no right can be taken for granted. In this specific case, this means that we cannot stop monitoring the state of health of the legal apparatus concerning our national LGBTQ+ communities, as it directly affects LGBTQ+ asylum seekers are treated
Indeed, the hostile attitude held by a national government such as Giorgia Meloni’s, which has led to personal and social hardships in the Italian LGBTQ+ community that greatly affect many people’s lives, will cause even greater hardships to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, who could, if sent back to their home-countries, even meet their death.
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