League senators furious over transgender Q&A with kids

The far-right League’s famously hardline conservative senator Simone Pillon was left outraged after a transgender actor and former politician spoke to schoolchildren about gender identity for a TV show.

Published: 21 January 2019 16:19 CET

League senators furious over transgender Q&A with kids

Anti-gay rights activists protest in Rome with a sign saying 'We are all born from a man and a woman'. Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

Actor Vladimir Luxuria spoke to the group of 9-12 year olds for RAI3 show Alla Lavagna! (At the Blackboard), on which adults are quizzed by a classroom full of youngsters, often on controversial or “adult” themes like politics, religion and now, sexuality.

The show is well-known in Italy for the thoughtful and sometimes challenging questions posed by children to adult participants, who have previously included League leader Matteo Salvini.

Luxuria told the children of the “deep sadness” she'd felt as an adolescent, being born a boy but identifying strongly as female.

Pillon reportedly slammed the Q&A session as “shameful indoctrination” and said Luxuria “should go and tell her fairytale somewhere else, definitely not in a school with kids in front of the cameras.”

He said he would be filing a complaint about the contents of the show with the broadcaster’s parliamentary oversight committee.

Pillone is not the only one to complain about the show, with the channel receiving a high number of complaints after the programme was aired and drawing criticsm from conservative Christian groups like ProVita and Generazione Famiglia.

The show was also described as “unacceptable” by Paolo Tiramani, League minister and member of the Rai Parliamentary committee, who said the topic was “too complex” for the children and that such private matters “must remain private.”

It's no surprise that the party, which rules in coalition with the Five Star Movement, has reacted so strongly to the programme.

The League has given conservative Catholics several prominent government roles, notably new Families Minister Lorenzo Fontana, who upon his appointment swiftly declared that same-sex parents “don't exist at the moment, as far as the law is concerned” and expressed his preference for what he called “natural” families with one mother and one father.

Salvini meanwhile has pushed for the wording to be changed on childrens' identity cards from “parents” to “mother and father”. But his attempt to give preference to heterosexual couples was blocked by data protection rules.

Pillon meanwhile, also a family lawyer, proposed sweeping reforms to Italy's divorce and custody laws that opponents fear will make it harder for women to leave marriages and place survivors of domestic abuse at continued risk.

While Italy does not recognise gay marriage or the parental rights it would guarantee, at a local level various Italian cities have begun allowing same-sex couples to legally register their children to both parents, a move towards de facto acknowledgement.

Italy scores poorly when it comes to LGBT rights, particulary with equality and non-discrimination, according to rights group Rainbow Europe.

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” — adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The “Report” programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.