Lombardy Regionals, the proposal from Milan: “Single line in polling stations so as not to discriminate against transgender people”

The idea is launched on social media by the Municipality of Milan, thanks to the councilor Gaia Romani, and by the Milanese activists of the Cig Arcigay: «A choice against the binary system of electoral registers, which makes those subjects uncomfortable and leads them to give up the vote ». A single line in each polling station, to ensure gender equality without discrimination against transgender people. A few days before the regional elections in Lombardy, the councilor for civic services of the Municipality of Milan Gaia Romani launches this proposal on social media on the occasion of the call to the polls between Sunday 12 and Monday 13 February.

An invitation to inclusiveness through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok created in collaboration with the volunteers of the Cig Arcigay Milano. Specifically, Romani explains, these are “three videos to support polling station presidents, tellers and tellers in welcoming the voters in an inclusive way at the polling stations”. A choice that therefore opposes the division by gender “based on a binary system of electoral registers” which makes “many transgender and non-binary people uncomfortable, often leading them to give up voting”.

An initiative that therefore attempts to counteract a slice of abstention caused not by disinterest or distrust in politics, but by the fear of being oneself. “We have tried to take a step forward – concluded Romani – and to give an answer to the many realities and associations that for years have denounced a highly discriminatory and disrespectful rule for transgender and non-binary people”.

Alec Sebastian D’Aulerio, activist of the Cig Arcigay Milan, in a minute of video disclosed on social networks by the association, by the official accounts of Milan and by the councilor herself, therefore explains the proposal: “The presidents have the task of organizing the rows at inside the polling stations. For an inclusive vote, the solution is to distribute voters and electors in a single line, keep registers close together and proceed with the identification of people only when their turn comes”.

It would be an organizational choice, explains D’Aulerio, which would go to counter the discrepancy dictated by the electoral registers. And that for people “it can lead to situations of embarrassment or even humiliation at polling stations if, for example, they are forced to line up following their personal gender rather than the one they identify with”.
“Care and respect for all voters is important” concludes the activist at the end of the first of the three videos that will be uploaded on various social networks these days. “With this little precaution you have the opportunity to make the voting experience more serene for all citizens and citizens”.