The issue of gay rights has been for a long time a taboo in Catholic Italy, discussed for real only after the organization of a gay pride in Rome during the 2000 jubilee. However, in the following years the subject has become a main bone of contention between the centre-left, the centre-right and the Catholic forces. Particularly, a hot debate developed before and immediately after the 2006 parliamentary elections, when the centre-left coalition included forces – such as the Radical Party and Communist Refoundation – willing to approve a law legalizing same-sex unions; while, on the other hand, the centre-right pushed hard on values in order to gain legitimacy in tough electoral times. During the campaign, harsh debates developed however also inside the centre-left, particularly since the Catholic wing of the coalition did not want to approve a full-fledged union/marriage for same-sex couples, but was only ready to concede them some specific rights. After the quick demise of the Prodi government the public debate kept mostly silent about the issue. It was revived only during the campaign for the 2013 elections, when Nichi Vendola, the former Communist and openly gay leader of the Left Ecology and Freedom party (included in the new centre-left coalition) put the problem on the floor by explicitly declaring that he wanted to marry his partner and adopt children with him. The paper will analyze the frames adopted by the different political and social forces to address the issue in the two campaigns, trying to understand the peculiarities and the differences between the two phases of the debate. Particularly, it will try to understand if there has been an evolution in the idea of marriage that could anticipate the adoption of a law on same-sex unions in Italy in the next future.
