Franco Grillini
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
politician and Italy's most prominent gay rights activist.
Career
He was born in PianoroPianoro
Pianoro is a town and comune in the province of Bologna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, in the hills of the Tusco-Emilian Apennines .Highway SS 65 connects the town to Bologna and Florence across the Apennines...
, Province of Bologna
Province of Bologna
The Province of Bologna is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Bologna.-Geography:It has an area of 3,702 km², and a total population of 991,647 . There are 60 comuni in the province, see Comuni of the Province of Bologna...
. During the 1970s, he took part in student political movements. He attended the University of Bologna
University of Bologna
The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...
, graduating in 1979 with a degree in education, and subsequently became a psychologist, psychotherapist, and journalist. He was 27 years old and engaged to a woman when he came out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
.
Grillini entered politics in the 1970s with the Proletarian Unity Party; in 1985 he ran as a Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
candidate in the province of Bologna
Province of Bologna
The Province of Bologna is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Bologna.-Geography:It has an area of 3,702 km², and a total population of 991,647 . There are 60 comuni in the province, see Comuni of the Province of Bologna...
. From 1991 to 2001 he held continuous membership of the Ministry of Health’s “National Council for the Fight against AIDS”. He was elected for the first time to the Council of the Province of Bologna
Province of Bologna
The Province of Bologna is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Bologna.-Geography:It has an area of 3,702 km², and a total population of 991,647 . There are 60 comuni in the province, see Comuni of the Province of Bologna...
in 1990, and subsequently re-elected in 1995 and 1999. In 1999 he was named president of the Italian Ministry for Equal Opportunities’ “Commission for the Rights and Equal Opportunities of Homosexual People”. Following the dissolution of the Communist Party, he joined the Democratic Party of the Left
Democratic Party of the Left
The Democratic Party of the Left was a post-communist, democratic socialist political party in Italy.-History:...
, which later became Democrats of the Left
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
. He was first elected to the Italian Parliament in 2001, and re-elected in 2006. In 2007, he left his party, refusing to join the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Italy)
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....
, and joined the Democratic Left
Democratic Left (Italy)
Democratic Left was a democratic socialist political party in Italy.It was founded on 5 May 2007 by splinters of the Democrats of the Left centred around Fabio Mussi and Gavino Angius, who opposed the merger of the DS into the Democratic Party...
movement.
Among the legislation Grillini has proposed is a civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
law similar to the French PACS
Pacte civil de solidarité
In France, a pacte civil de solidarité commonly known as a PACS /paks/ , is a form of civil union between two adults for organising their joint life. It brings rights and responsibilities, but less so than marriage...
and adding sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
and gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
to the anti-discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
article of the Constitution of Italy
Constitution of Italy
The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947...
.
On June 28, 1982, Grillini helped found the Circolo Omosessuale Ventotto Giugno in Bologna, the first gay group to receive government funding. This group would develop into the national group Arcigay
Arcigay
Arcigay is Italy's first and largest national gay organization.The association was first founded as a local association in Palermo in 1980, then nationally established in Bologna in 1985.. The organisation became known throughout Italy for its campaign for civil unions...
, Italy's leading gay organization, founded in 1985. Grillini was its secretary for two years before becoming its President in 1987. In 1988, he called a special session of Arcigay for the purpose of recognizing the presence of lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s in the organization. Since 1998, he has been Honorary President of Arcigay.
He has also founded LILA (Italian League for the Fight Against AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
), in 1987; LINFA (Italian New Families League - originally LIFF, Italian Common-Law Families League), which aims to promote legislation for the legal recognition of homosexual and heterosexual partnerships, in 1997; and NOI (Italian Gay News), Italy's first gay news agency, of which he remains the editor, on May 29, 1998.