Framing and shaming: LGBT activism, feminism and the construction of ‘gestational surrogacy’ in Italy

ABSTRACT

This article will discuss the existence of and reasons for a pattern of cross-mobilisation between Italian feminist and LGBT movements in relation to the controversial issue of gestational surrogacy. Gestational surrogacy usually involves a woman who offers to carry out a pregnancy (either on a voluntary basis or through monetary compensation) on behalf of couples (be them heterosexual or homosexual) who are infertile or cannot have children. In Italy gestational surrogacy has acquired prominence in the political debate following the approval of the law same-sex unions in 2016. Immediately within this context important fractures on this issue emerged between and within the feminist and LGBT movements. This article will consider the motivations behind those rifts and map the different proposed solutions to the regulation of gestational surrogacy in Italy.

KEYWORDS:

• Feminism
• LGBT
• social movements
• Italy
• surrogacy

Acknowledgments

I want to thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful and constructive comments as well as Dr. Maria Federica Moscati for looking at the manuscript of this article and giving me punctual feedback. I also want to thank Dr. Tatiana Motterle, Giada Bonu, Cecilia Nessi, and Dr. Giorgia Serughetti for their insights on the topic during the course of our chats.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Although the ‘T’ for transgender activists has been included in the acronym, debates on (gestational) surrogacy have only marginally involved the trans community.

2. See Steiner and Roşu (2016) and van Wichelen (2016). For the situation in India, please see Pande (2010).

3. Grosz (1990) summarises the concept of ‘feminism of difference’ as follows: ‘a major transformation of the social and symbolic order, which, in patriarchy is founded by a movement of universalisation of the singular (male) identity. Difference cannot be readily accommodated in a system which reduces all difference to distinction, and all identity to sameness’.

4. Heller (1976) defines familism as ‘(…) a set of rights and obligations pertaining to members of a given kin network’.

5. Hanafin (2007, p. 5) defines vitapolitics as ‘(…) not a politics of empowerment but a politics of entrapment in an imagined natural order’.

6. Italian Constitutional Court, 2014. Judgment 162/2014. Available at: https://www.cortecostituzionale.it/actionSchedaPronuncia.do?anno=2014&numero=162. Last accessed 26 May 2019.

7. Specific Italian newspapers databases were also consulted to check that all relevant sources were included.

8. For a further insight into the debate on gestational surrogacy in Italy, please refer to Motterle and Guerzoni (2018) e Cossutta (2018).

9. Serughetti (2016) offers the following list: ‘surrogate maternity’ (maternità surrogata), ‘surrogacy of maternity’ (surrogazione di maternità), ‘gestation for others’ (gestazione per altri), ‘gestation of support’ (gestazione di supporto), ‘maternity by substitution’ (maternità di sostituzione), ‘maternity by proxy’ (maternità per procura), as well as ‘womb for rent’ (utero in affitto).

10. Arcilesbica had already expressed its disapproval of (gestational) surrogacy in 2012, during its VI Congress (Lalli 2015a).

11. It is important to note that, as of 2019, no measures have been taken neither by the Conte Government I or the Conte Government II.

12. These two documents did not exclusively focussed on (gestational) surrogacy, but touched on several other themes such as the inclusion of trans women within the lesbian and feminist movement, the issue of gender violence, etc.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francesca Romana Ammaturo

Dr Francesca Romana Ammaturo is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and human rights at the University of Roehampton. Her expertise is in the field of LGBTQI issues and human rights, LGBTQI social movements, European human rights and European Citizenship. She has published several single-authored articles in several international peer-reviewed journals, as well as having authored the monograph titled “European Sexual Citizenship: Human Rights, Bodies, and Identities for Palgrave in 2017. Dr. Ammaturo has also conducted ethnographic research at the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. Currently, her research focuses on LGBTQI activism and human rights in Southern Europe.