LGBTQ rights in Italy

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Italy significantly advanced in the 21st century, although LGBTQ people still face various challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, despite public opinion being increasingly liberal and in favor of LGBT rights. According to ILGA-Europe's 2021 report, the status of LGBT rights in Italy is below the standards of other Western European countries – such as still not recognizing same-sex marriage, lacking nationwide discrimination protections for goods and services, as well as not granting to same-sex couples full parental rights, such as joint adoption and IVF. Italy and Japan are the only G7 nations where same-sex marriages are not recognized.

In Italy both male and female same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1890, when a new penal code was promulgated. A civil union law was passed in May 2016, providing same-sex couples with all of the rights of marriage except for joint adoption rights. The law also recognizes same-sex couples as a family. Stepchild adoption was excluded from the bill, but in June 2016 the Supreme Court of Cassation stated that courts can allow a couple in a civil union to adopt their stepchildren. The same law provides both same-sex and heterosexual couples which live in an unregistered cohabitation with several legal rights.

Transgender people have been allowed to legally change their gender since 1982. Italy became the sixth country in the world to legally acknowledge the right of individuals to change their gender. Prior to this, only Denmark (1929), Sweden (1972), Chile (1974), Norway (1979), and West Germany (1980) had introduced similar legal recognition. The proposal for this legal reform faced little opposition: both chambers of the Italian Parliament unanimously agreed to assign the responsibility of finalising the law to their respective Standing Committees on Justice. As a result, once the Committees approved the draft, the law was enacted immediately, bypassing the need for additional votes in Parliament. Since 2015, undergoing surgery is no longer required in order to change one’s legal gender in Italy. In 2020, hormone therapy became fully covered by the national healthcare system, making it accessible free of charge. More recently, in 2024, judicial authorisation is no longer necessary to access gender-affirming surgeries, as long as legal sex change has occurred, further reducing legal and bureaucratic barriers for transgender individuals seeking medical transition.

Although discrimination regarding sexual orientation in employment has been banned since 2003, no other anti-discrimination laws regarding sexual orientation or gender identity and expression have been enacted nationwide, although some Italian regions have enacted far more comprehensive anti-discrimination laws. In 2023, a new poll showed a large majority in favour of civil unions (70.1%), a majority for same-sex marriage (65.2%), and also for adoption by same-sex couples (51.4%).