Bologna, seat 16. Cathy La Torre, lawyer and activist in the battle for the rights of the LGTB community has it on record that “the division of the electorate into males and females is highly detrimental to the privacy and confidentiality of people in gender transition, whose gender identity is a particular personal data and needs to be treated in accordance with the provisions of article 9 of regulation 206/2018 “. But the teller calls the police, asserting that the lawyer has hindered the voting operations.
An episode that, even in this electoral round, raised the issue of the rights of transgender people forced to join the queue indicated for the gender indicated in the identity documents which, for those who have not undertaken or completed the transition process, often do not it corresponds to the appearance of people forced to live in a situation of embarrassment, pointed at, sometimes derided, however forced to highlight such a personal fact of their gender identity.
A de facto discrimination which, despite the petitions and requests renewed over the years, has not yet been overcome. In fact, a 55-year old law provides for the division of the seats of men and women. It is article 5 of the decree of the President of the Republic which establishes that the electoral lists must be divided by gender. The electoral registers, therefore, are still separate. In some seats, men and women are already divided into the rows leading to the urn, in others the row is unique but in any case when you arrive you are sorted. And there are many testimonies of transsexuals who have suffered discrimination.
“I voted! And I brought with me a written statement asking them to record that the division of electoral registers for males and females must be overcome. It is an obstacle to the exercise of the vote of trans and non-binary people who, in this way, they are forced to come out “. Senator Monica Cirinnà, a candidate for the Senate in the Lazio 1 – U04 college for the center-left, also shared the protest and proposes: “On the other hand, electricians and voters could be divided in alphabetical order based on surname. As happens elsewhere. Nobody should feel discriminated, never. Especially when exercising a fundamental right such as voting. You can do it too, if you want. Happy voting to all and all “.
The Trans Group of Bologna already in 2018 launched a campaign to ask for the modification of the voting procedures, a petition on the Change, org platform collected 5,000 signatures that were sent to the Viminale and Palazzo Chigi but nothing has moved. Today 150 volunteers of the association in different cities of Italy accompanied the transsexuals to the polling station. In some cases, as the lawyer cathy La Torre did, the opposition to these procedures considered discriminatory was made to record. The aim of the campaign, if the law is not changed, is to refer the matter to the Constitutional Court