Vatican’s homophobia shines through the cross, opposes Italy’s new bill against LGBTQ discrimination

The Vatican has protested to the Italian government over a Zan bill on homophobia currently going through the parliament before it becomes a law, reports the BBC.

For the Vatican, the Zan bill would curb religious freedoms secured in a treaty as once this bill is passed it would punish discrimination and incitement to violence against the LGBT community, as well as women and people with disabilities.

However, this law will prove detrimental to the Vatican because, under current Roman Catholic doctrine, gay relationships are referred to as “deviant behaviour”.
 
 The Zan bill is named after LGBT activist and politician Alessandro Zan and has already been passed by the lower house of parliament in November. It now needs to pass the Senate. Once that happens, this law will give legal protections for women and people who are LGBT and disabled people. Those found guilty of hate crimes or discrimination against these said groups could face up to four years in prison.

Alessandro Zan, who is sponsoring the bill in a tweet said, “The text [of the law] does not restrict in any way freedom of expression or religious freedom. And it respects the autonomy of all schools,”.

The Vatican informally delivered a letter to Italy’s ambassador on 17 June stating strong reservation against this proposed law. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told AFP news agency that this bill was “an unprecedented act in the history of relations” between Italy and the Vatican as it would violate the Lateran Treaty, signed by the two in 1929, which recognized Vatican City as an independent state.

The Vatican is particularly objected to Catholic schools not being exempted from a proposed national day against homophobia and transphobia, to be held on 17 May as Catholics could face legal action for expressing their opinions on LGBT issues.

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