Fact Check: Did Italy cancel Pride Month? Traditional family pride month post debunked

Social media users recently made claims that Italy had reportedly canceled Pride Month in 2023. Some even alleged that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni personally launched something called the "Family Pride Month," instead. The rumor began when a Twitter user @TheCalvinCooli1 shared a tweet about the same on June 5, 2023.

In their tweet, the user wrote that the Prime Minister of Italy had decided to "counter Pride Month" by launching "Pride Family Month." They said that the latter will "promote traditional family." Since being posted on June 5, the tweet has gone viral with over 6000 retweets, 29.2K likes, and 229 bookmarks.

Many who saw the tweet began believing that the conservative Italian government had canceled Pride Month to promote "traditional families," aka a union between a man and a woman. They even went on to claim that the government was opposed to the Pride Month celebrations by the LGBTQIA+ community which are currently being held across the world.

However, all of these were just rumors and Italy hasn't canceled Pride Month. Additionally, the Prime Minister hasn't promoted Family Pride Month either.

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Italy is not campaigning for ‘Family Pride Month’

As mentioned earlier, Italy isn't promoting Family Pride Month as a response to Pride Month celebrations that usually take place in June every year. Additionally, Prime Minister Meloni's government hasn't done any such thing and the same has been confirmed by multiple Italian LGBTQIA+ supporters and even protesters.

Jacopo Coghe, an official from Pro Vita and Famiglia, a Rome-based group that opposes same-sex marriage and abortions, made a statement about the same. He said that the government hasn't made any such announcement and neither has the group sent them any such proposal.

Another spokesperson Vincenzo Brana from Arcigay, a renowned LGBTQ+ advocacy organization based in Bologna, also made a statement. He said that the proof that it was fake news could be found in the fact that no Italian media outlet ever mentioned it.

He noted that the news was a "falsehood" that came "straight from abroad.” He even went on to confirm that if such a thing ever occurred, he and his group would strongly oppose it.

A tweet debunking Italy's traditional 'Family Pride Month' post. (Image via Twitter/Jerome Chenu)

However, something similar did take place in Rome, Italy in May 2023. A long-term and conservative celebration called "Family Day" was observed in the city. It was organized by the Family Day Association and was attended by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other right-wing conservative politicians.

At the crux of the event was anti-abortion and anti-same-sex propaganda. However, it was not sponsored by Meloni's government.

On the same day, another event took place in the heart of Rome. It was called National Demonstration for Life or Manifestazione Nazionale per la Vita in Italian. It was deemed as a brand-new and month-long ceremony to boost the traditional idea of marriage between a man and a woman. It is similar to the anti-abortion March for Life that happens every year in the US capital Washington D.C.

However, netizens assumed all these events to be in direct opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and took to Twitter to protest against Italy. Some posts even revealed video clips from Rome’s anti-abortion marches.

Gabriele Magni explained that the attendance and participation of Meloni and other Italian politicians have made such a widespread social media accusation. Magni is a professor of Political Science and the founding director of the LGBTQ+ Politics Research Initiative at Los Angeles’ Loyola Marymount University.

It is worth noting that so far, the Italian government has not commented on the recent developments.