Italian far-right ruling party ordered to pay €20,000 to gay couple over unauthorised use of photo
The far-right Italian ruling party, Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), led by current Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, have been ordered to pay damages to a Canadian gay couple after they used a photo of the pair with their newborn baby in an anti-surrogacy campaign.Fratelli d’Italia, which has neofascist origins and has repeatedly employed anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant and anti-feminist rhetoric during last year’s electoral campaign, used the image in question without the couple’s permission back in 2016.The photo, which was taken by Lindsay Foster, showed Frankie Nelson and his partner BJ Barone cradling their son Milo, moments after he was born to a surrogate mother in 2014.
In it, both men were topless and overcome with emotion. After they posted the image online, it quickly went viral.The anti-LGBTQ+ ad campaign run by Fratelli d’Italia contained the photo accompanied by a caption which read, “He will never be able to say ‘Mummy’.
These are the rights of a child that must be defended.”The couple took the case against the party with the support of the Italian LGBTQ+ law firm Gay Lex in 2016.
Seven years after commencing proceedings, a court in Rome finally ruled in favour of Nelson and Barone, describing the use of the image in the ad as “offensive”, and awarding damages of €10,000 to each father.
