A child of same sex marriage recognized for the first time by an Italian court has not been named to protect her identity. In a ruling by the Italian court that was released Wednesday the girl, who was conceived by artificial insemination and whose lesbian parents were legally married in Spain, was recognized as an Italian citizen. The court ordered that the child’s birth be transcribed into the official records of the hometown for her Italian mother. This is a big change for the Italian courts, because in Italy the Catholic church and the Vatican still hold a lot of power over politics and the country does not allow same sex marriage or even civil unions. The girl was born in 2011, and a court in Barcelona gave both mothers joint custody when their marriage fell apart.
Until the Italian court order the child of same sex marriage recognized the girl could not obtain Italian citizenship or come to Italy to be with her mother. A lower court had rules in 2013 that Italy could not recognize the child’s birth legally or give citizenship to the child, but the ruling from the higher court overrules the previous ruling. According to court officials the court was acting with the “exclusive interests of the child, who has been brought up by two women which the (Spanish) law each recognizes as its mother.”Because both same sex marriage and artificial insemination are very controversial in Italy even today the names of all the parties involved have been kept private.