Rome holds LGBTQ+ Pride parade amid backdrop of Meloni government crackdown on surrogate births

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Rome’s annual LGBTQ+ Pride parade is winding its way through the Italian capital. This year’s version provides a counterpoint to the right-wing national government’s crackdown on surrogate pregnancies. Some three dozen floats joined the event on Saturday, including one celebrating the “rainbow families” of same-sex couples. Earlier this year, the government headed by far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni told municipal officials to refrain from recording both members of a same-sex couple as the parent of the child, only the biological parent. Among those who have defied that order was center-left Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, who came to Saturday’s parade.