“The sex reassignment ward? I have not become a leftist but rights must be guaranteed»- Corriere.it

“Look, we’re not talking about a kind concession, a lightning bolt on the road to Damascus or a progressive leap…”. The Veneto region has just approved the construction of a sex change center within the University Hospital of Padua. For the governor Luca Zaiaa due fact: «Sex change is a Lea, an essential level of assistance prescribed by law».

The other presidents so far have not seen it in this light…

«Let’s clarify what we are talking about: you can count on the fingers of one hand the people in Veneto who decide for that choice every year, and with a lot of court authorization. It is an impervious path, at the end of which, however, the right to intervention and the health path matures. Obviously, without subtracting any benefits regarding other pathologies. All I did was guarantee that right.”

You had also talked about it in your book, “Pessimists don’t make a fortune”. But it wasn’t obvious that a center-right administrator would implement such a thing. Or not?

“But what are we talking about? I am the administrator of everyone, regardless of wealth, sexual orientation, religious faith or skin color. Anyone who doesn’t think so is not worthy of being an administrator and he is in the wrong place. And I think above all that the task of politics is not to limit freedoms, but to guarantee them».

Some say: other roads could have been taken without setting up a specialized center which becomes a sort of flag…

«Actually, at the time we had already commissioned a private individual to set up a specific clinic. Then a series of vicissitudes – not least Covid – prompted us to a different solution. After that, it’s not that we opened a hospital: we gave an answer to those Venetians who fall within a case law. Among other things, not everyone really knows what we’re talking about…”.

You remind us.

“Sex determination takes place in the embryonic stage. It may happen that for a series of hormonal and genetic dynamics there are malformations of different entities. Consider, only by way of example, hermaphroditism. And then, there are those who are born in the wrong body. And we have a duty to respect these cases.

They say that the sex change of minors will be promoted.

«I remember that the change of sex goes through the courts. Apart from the fact that the process leading up to the operation is very long, I really don’t see this possibility. And if anything, I think of those parents with the anguish of being alone in the face of what their children feel and feel».

Don’t you fear attacks from your political side as well?

«It would be disgusting if someone thought that such a thing was done with an eye to politics. I have always done what I had to do, you don’t make resolutions to make politics, especially on people’s difficulties”.

There are already those who make fire and flames…

«Radical positions also exist on the right, as they certainly do on the left. But from here to say that a radical position can become a norm, there is a lot. However, I would like to remind you that the institution of the center was voted unanimously».

What did you have to do to convince councilor Elena Donazzan, who didn’t seem inclined to such innovations?

«I told her “look, there is this measure”. And she replied “I vote for it”».

When you participated in the World Congress of Families in Verona, you said that the “pathology is homophobia, not homosexuality”. Are you a progressive after all?

“Hand. I speak of equality of citizens. If we are all equal, there is no one who has more rights and who has less. Then, the centre-right is often accused of a lack of sensitivity, but we don’t have a nose ring and we mustn’t let ourselves be locked up in a reserve. And we still respect the law. Giorgia Meloni also said it ».

About what?

«She had just been elected and was already besieged by those who asked her about abortion. She replied: “There is a law and I respect the law.” Moreover, if you say that you are in favor of the abortion law, it is not that you are an abortionist: you keep your personal ideas but you recognize that the freedoms of others must be respected. Me as an administrator, even more ».

More from administrator?

«If one wants to change the world, he doesn’t do it as an administrator, if anything, he goes to Parliament. He gets elected, and proposes what he wants. But I don’t know that there are any proposals in Parliament to amend the law on sex change”.