“TWO MOTHERS” IN THE COURT OF APPEAL

Denise, from the US, and Giulia, from Italy, decide to “get married” in the United States and to “have” a child. Through the heterologous fertilisation that took place in the United States, the child was born in Italy on 20 January 2016. The two women went to the Municipality of Pisa with the intention to register both their names on the birth certificate as “mothers”, but this was denied. So, they decided to turn to the Court of Pisa.
The court, not finding reasons to resolve the dispute, asked the Constitutional Court for an opinion which in 2019 declares the question of legitimacy inadmissible. Referring to this pronouncement, on 6 May, the Court of Pisa did not accepted the appeal of the two women, agreeing, however, with the Council on the presence of a missing regulation that could only be filled by the legislator.
The Pisan judges wrote: “As for the alleged discrimination that would be created between the situation of those born abroad and here the birth certificate is formed with consequent transcription in Italy and that of those born in Italy and this birth certificate cannot achieve, it is a question of only apparent discrimination. In fact, it is quite different for the State to recognise a situation that in fact already exists in the naturalistic world and has found a formal arrangement in another legal system (limiting itself to accepting its consequences) and to give discipline and the possibility of creating the same situation in the internal system. ”
We would like to remind the judges that an illegal action according to the Italian law does not change its nature if it is carried out abroad. What is wrong remains wrong. Regulating illegal acts does not make them lawful.

The two women were not satisfied with the Court’s ruling. With their lawyer Alexander Schuster, their defender, they will present an appeal that will bring them before the Court of Appeal in Florence next November.
In a statement, lawyer Schuster wanted to underline that: “Gay and lesbian families who come to live here in Italy must be aware of the backwardness of the country, in my opinion, and of the lack of legal recognition to which they expose themselves “.
We would like to remind him that, it is true that anyone has the right to decide where to live, but it is equally true that it is the duty of those who are hosted to respect the legislation of the host country. This is possible if there is the will to know its culture and apply the resulting regulations.
In our opinion this is the basis of respect for everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion and sex.