LGBTQ rights in Italy

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Italy significantly advanced in the 21st century, thanks to both legislation and Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of Cassation rulings, although LGBTQ people still face various challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, despite public opinion being increasingly liberal and in favor of LGBT rights. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1890, when a new penal code was promulgated. A civil union law was passed in May 2016, providing same-sex couples with all of the rights of marriage except for joint adoption rights. The law also recognizes same-sex couples as a family. Stepchild adoption was excluded from the bill, but in June 2016 the Supreme Court of Cassation stated that courts can allow a couple in a civil union to adopt their stepchildren. The same law provides both same-sex and heterosexual couples which live in an unregistered cohabitation with several legal rights. In May 2025, the Constitutional Court ruled that when a lesbian couple has a child through IVF abroad, both women can be automatically registered as the child's mothers, without having to go through stepchild adoption. In April 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that children with same-sex parents must have gender-neutral terms on their ID documents instead of “mother” and “father.” This change ensures that documents reflect the child's actual family structure and effectively removes a discriminatory rule. In July 2025, the Constitutional Court ruled that the non-biological mother in a lesbian couple is entitled to mandatory parental leave. In May 2026, the Constitutional Court ruled that surviving partners in same-sex marriages performed abroad are entitled to a survivor’s pension even if the spouse died before the 2016 Civil Unions Act, extending the entitlement retrospectively.[1]

However, according to ILGA-Europe's 2021 report, the status of LGBT rights in Italy is below the standards of other Western European countries – such as still not recognizing same-sex marriage, lacking nationwide discrimination protections for goods and services, as well as not granting to same-sex couples full parental rights, such as joint adoption and IVF. Italy and Japan are the only G7 nations where same-sex marriages are not recognized.