My queer friends in Italy are so worn down by discrimination, they don’t notice it. Here's why | Viola Di Grado

Giorgia Meloni is trampling what few rights the LGBTQ+ community has – so many just feel grateful to be ‘tolerated’

I was chatting online the other day with a female friend who is undergoing IVF in Italy to have a child with her girlfriend. IVF for lesbian couples is not approved by law in Italy; instead, doctors have the power to decide whether to approve the treatment on a case-by-case basis.

My friend was enthusiastic about her gynaecologist, because, as she told me, “despite being utterly against same-sex parenting, she is helping us do it without objecting”. That conversation left me with a bitter taste and, above all, confirmed how desensitised queer Italians have become to the daily discrimination they face.

Viola Di Grado is an Italian novelist and literary translator. Her latest novel is Blue Hunger