Today, after almost two months of publicity and preparation, a demonstration will take place in Rome in support of the family.

The Italian family is in decline, it would seem. Low birth rates and marriage rates, according to the organisers demand urgent action on the part of the government.

The motivation behind the timing of the protest, though, is open to question. This so-called decline in the family has been evident for years (if not decades), but a mass demonstration has been organised solely when a centre-left government proposes legislation that will give legal rights to co-habiting couples – including homosexuals.

How popular/important the demonstation will be remains to be seen. Political support has thus far been patchy, even amongst Catholic politicians. An interesting barometer is the fact that Silvio Berlusconi has been hedging whether he’ll appear on the stage in Piazza San Giovanni in Rome today. Presumably he’s waiting for a head count.

Chief amongst the problems with the demonstration is that it there are no concrete proposals, it seems, from the organisation’s manifesto, other than protecting the unique legal/constitutional position of the family.

It’s as if there are legions of us who would get married and have children in the morning, were it not for the alluring prospect of legal rights for co-habiting gays. Do the organisers really believe that the main reason why people hesitate to get married and have children in Italy is because they’re holding out for the easier co-habiting option to be given legal rights and tax breaks?

The more uncomfortable truth is that many Italians of child-bearing age do not have the economic confidence to start a family. Given that both centre-left and centre-right governments are committed to labour ‘flexibility’, perhaps the organisers would be better advised to have made their protest on the May day along with the Unions (although at least one mainstream union will be officially present at the demonstration).

Taboo is the suggestion that perhaps the ‘family’ structure isn’t above criticism. A reader’s letter to La Repubblica during the week was eloquent, but went largely unnoticed, pointing out the scriptural arguments against prizing the family above all. By and large, the central thesis of Family Day 2007,has been accepted across the political spectrum, that “the family is a fundamental human resource on which the identity and future of both the person and community depends. Only in the family founded on the union between a man and a woman, and open to a natural generational order, can children be born and grow into a ommunity of love and life, from which they can expect a civil education, both moral and religious”^[1].

Much of this is transparently open to question – and yet, unsurprisingly, no major political figure has called into question this thesis.

Within this context it’s worth publishing, in full, a press release received from The European Women’s Lobby Group:

We are families!

On the occasion of the International Day of Families, 15 May 2007, four social NGOs are reminding the EU that any definition of families should reflect the diversity of families which exist in European societies. Increasingly, the traditional concept of family is challenged by the evolution of society. The number of teenage pregnancies, single-parent families and families based on same-sex unions is on the rise in the EU. A failure to acknowledge their existence, and respond to the particular challenges they face, in policy and legislation amounts to discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, age, nationality, religion, disability and sexual orientation.

Today is also the occasion to remind the EU of the need to implement the principle of family reunification and freedom of movement of families within the EU without discrimination. Increasingly restrictive family reunification policies across the EU member states undermine the right to family life, and have a detrimental effect on the integration of migrants.

Definitions of families and family policies should extend to quality publicly funded care for dependents and state benefits which recognise families in their diversity. Caring duties and costs must not fall solely on families and in particular women. Member states must take responsibility for the well being and the full integration of dependents.

List of quotes:

Patricia Prendiville, Executive Director of ILGA-Europe said:

“We do not want our families to be constantly considered as second class. At the end of the day, the ones who pay the toll for such discriminatory measures are children in lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) families. Not recognising LGBT families in law and practice will only damage the right of children to the security and protection available to other children; it will not stop LGBT families from existing.”

Kirsti Kolthoff, President of the European Women’s Lobby stated:

“Care services are missing in the EU, which leads to a “double life burden”, for women who more and more work outside the home and at the same time perform the majority of caring and household tasks. The way out of this “double life burden” of women, lies of course in changes in attitudes in the home, for an equal sharing of caring tasks between women and men, and it also depends on policies that allow women and men a real choice.”

Pascale Charhon, Director of the European Network against Racism (ENAR), pointed out that “there is an inherent contradiction in the policies of member states which seek to increasingly restrict migration and family reunification, while at the same time promoting integration and family rights in Europe”.

Anne-Sophie Parent, Director of AGE – the European Older People’s Platform observed that “the family should be considered in all its dimensions including the ageing family and that family policy should recognise the wish and limitations of families to care for their elderly dependants”.

[1] “La famiglia è un bene umano fondamentale dal quale dipendono l’identità e il futuro delle persone e della comunità sociale. Solo nella famiglia fondata sull’unione stabile di un uomo e una donna, e aperta a un’ordinata generazione naturale, i figli nascono e crescono in una comunità d’amore e di vita, dalla quale possono attendersi un’educazione civile, morale e religiosa. ” – Piu Famiglia manifesto