A single row instead of two, this is how it went at the inclusive polling stations

In the last elections some municipalities asked to remove double rows from the polling stations to overcome the gender division.A starting point of a still long road.

In Italy the electoral registers, i.e. the lists drawn up by the Ministry of the Interior in which citizens and citizens admitted to the exercise of the right to vote are registered, have been divided by gender since, in 1945, women gained the right to vote.This division has also been occurring for decades a clear division of the ranks between voters and electors within the polling stations which, in many cases, are discriminatory towards trans, non-binary or intersex people who find themselves forced to come out and reveal their identity gender identity against their will.

To try to overcome part of this discrimination, during the election weekend of8 and 9 June who called people to vote to elect the new members of the European Parliament, some Italian municipalities have decided to give indications of inclusiveness to the staff at the polling stations, asking not to divide the waiting lines by gender.The municipal administrations of cities such as Padua, Milan, Bologna And Udine, in fact, they sent guidelines to the presidents of the electoral sections in which they invited them not to divide the ranks between males and females, to allow all people to go to the polls with serenity and "so as not to cause embarrassment or difficulty in those people whose appearance does not correspond to the gender indicated in the official documents, or who are in transition", we read in the document sent by the Municipality of Padua.The indication was therefore that of do not queue up voters and electors waiting to vote in the traditional two rows, but rather to provide for the training of a single queue.

A decision that triggered different reactions.“The reaction in Padua was a bit polarized” Francesca Benciolini, councilor for demographic services of the Municipality of Padua, told Lifegate, “let's say that the centre-right politicians contested this choice, while the territory gave me a lot of positive feedback, because it was seen as an action to remove obstacles that prevent people from being able to freely exercise their right to vote."Right in Padua the Northern League councilor Ubaldo Lonardi it was said “deeply indignant” defining this indication as “absurd”.Similarly, the councilor of Fratelli d'Italia Elena Cappellini had also expressed herself negatively, declaring, before the vote, that it was yet another "grotesque decision" which would have done nothing other than "complicate the voting operations" since the subdivision between males and females “it is in fact only an organizational modality”.

At the origin of the choice are the demands of an entire community

“At the origin of this choice there is, on the one hand, listening to the territory”, explained Francesca Benciolini, “and on the other, a council motion voted in the city council, which asked for precisely this attention”.In fact, it was presented in 2023 a motion, signed by the entire Democratic Party group within the municipal administration, in which it was asked to adopt some measures aimed at to promote the inclusion and citizenship of transgender people and people waiting to change the name on their documents.Among these there was also the request for line up voters and electors in a single row outside the polls.

“In addition to being a city councilor, I am part of the LGBTQIA+ community as the mother of a transgender person,” she told LifeGate Elivira Andreella, municipal councilor of the Democratic Party "and I experienced this problem together with my son".Andreella then reported that "every time you had to go to vote there was this problem of the two rows" and, when the hormones begin to take effect, dividing into the rows assigned to males and females, "it becomes for the transgender people a real problem."This binary division has often led, over time, many people to desist from going to vote, giving up a fundamental right, to avoid being exposed to a series of judgments that are difficult to deal with.“So this request starts right there and for years, together with various groups, we have been making this reasoning and developing requests to eliminate disparities,” continued Andreella.

“As associations and as a trans community we have visited the polling stations over the years, we have seen what the problems are and we have tried to report them” he explained to LifeGate Christian Leonardo Crystals, delegate for trans policies in the national Arcigay and member of the board of directors of the Gruppo Trans association.In 2018, Gruppo Trans itself, an association of transgender and non-binary people politically committed at a national level for the recognition of rights and the development of services dedicated to the well-being and protection of the trans community, launched a national campaign entitled "I am I vote” with the aim of obtaining accessible, inclusive and respectful polling stations for trans identities.“Initially we launched a mobilization” explained Cristalli “and asked people to go and vote and to record their disagreement with the gender division” highlighting how through the campaign they subsequently tried to bring this issue to light to any type of election, from the local ones to the recent European ones.

At the same time the association gave birth to an accompaniment procedure to the polls, creating a database that contains the data of people who made themselves available to accompany anyone who was in difficulty or in need to the polls.“This is not the solution to the problem” explained Cristalli, but “this procedure has still helped many people”.Today more than ever, according to the activist, ensuring that trans and non-binary people exercise their right to vote is more important than ever.

There is an attack on our lives and if we continue this vicious cycle by not going to vote, clearly we will not be able to move even in the slightest what we could.

Christian Leonardo Crystals

The law on gender division of electoral registers and attempts to change it

In Italy, in fact, the division of electoral registers on the basis of gender dates back to February 1, 1945, when the government presided over by Ivanoe Bonomi emanated a legislative decree which extended the right to vote to women who had reached the age of 21.In article 2 the same decree sanctioned the "compilation of female electoral lists in all municipalities", specifying that they had to be separated from the male ones.
The rule was later confirmed by law no.1058 of 7 October 1947 which validated the right to vote for women from the age of 21 and the gender division of the electoral lists.The provision also indicated that the electoral lists must also contain various voter data, including the name and surname of the member, paternity, place and date of birth, educational qualification, profession and home address. and “for married or widowed women, also the husband's surname”.

In the 1966 it was abolished the obligation to indicate paternity, while all other requirements were confirmed by a decree of the President of the Republic in 1967, including the use of electoral lists "separate for men and women" and the indication of the husband's surname for married or widowed women.

Subsequently, in 2003, they were eliminated other data from the electoral lists such as information regarding qualifications and profession, but the division on the basis of male or female gender and the obligation of a married surname for women still remained.

In April 2022 the deputy of the Democratic Party Giuditta Pini he presented, together with Angela Schirò, also from the Democratic Party, a bill aimed at overcoming the gender distinction between electoral lists and the obligation for women to indicate their husband's name.In May of the same year the proposal was assigned to the Constitutional Affairs Commission, but the process was then blocked, also due to the early dissolution of the chambers.

The April 9th Last year the Supreme Court of Cassation, after rejecting the appeal of some activists from the Gruppo Trans association of Bologna who asked their municipality of residence to be able to vote outside the male-female division of the electoral registers, established that theThe division of the registers does not affect the right to vote of those who do not identify with the gender assigned at birth.

According to what was reported by the association, the Court "highlighted that the procedure for dividing the electoral lists by gender is preparatory and of an administrative nature and would not affect the exercise of voting".Despite the denial, however, the Court also recognized, again according to what was reported by the Trans Group, that the voting operations, which take place at a later time, could be organized differently, without dividing people based on the gender written in the documents.“So basically from here we saw that after this communication” explained Christian Leonardo Cristalli, “some municipalities independently asked to remove the double lines, even if they did not directly involve us as an interested community”.

Beyond the polls, a battle that is not over yet

“This year I went to vote at a time when there was no queue at the polling station,” he told LifeGate Selva Pizzolitto, a non-binary transmasc person, "it was still a positive experience because there were no signs dividing voters and voters and they didn't say my name out loud, but I think this is just a starting point."According to Pizzolitto, in fact, these measures are not enough to make the inclusive voting operations towards trans and non-binary people, but first of all there should be training for polling station staff on how to avoid discrimination.

Separate lines are of little use if the staff is not trained.For example, it would be necessary for people at the polls not to address voters with names such as sir or madam, or even to use surnames and not say names aloud.

Selva Pizzolitto

These elements, in fact, could be discriminatory for people who do not recognize themselves in the gender assigned at birth, or people in transition who have not yet had the opportunity to rectify their documents and whose legal name may not correspond to their gender identity.

Starting points, therefore, important but not yet sufficient.Second Elvira Andreella, there is only one solution:the elimination of the gender division as a criterion for the distribution of electoral registers.“If the lists were created in alphabetical order and not by gender and therefore there were registers showing surnames from A to M and from N to Z, this whole problem would not exist,” concluded Andreella.

“After six years from the launch of the “I am I vote” campaign we finally have a starting point” declared Christian Leonardo Cristalli, adding that to eliminate discrimination and allow trans and non-binary people to exercise their right to vote, the The only solution is that of overcoming the gender divide of electoral lists, as well as the collaboration of local administrations with the communities involved, so that suggestions, policies and decisions are made in a more inclusive way and staff are adequately trained.