The official website of Italian LGBTQ+ organisation Rainbow Families suffered a cyber-attack from unidentified hackers, who turned it into a website filled with porn content.

On February 10, in the wake of the cyber-attack, the President of Rainbow Families Alessia Crocini announced that they were forced to shut down the website. The organisation is the only one in Italy that works for and represents same-sex parents and their families.

“It is clear how our association is under attack, not only online but politically as well,” said Crocini in a statement about the episode. “On our site there is no sensitive information or personal data, the only purpose of such an attack is to silence our voice“.

Crocini continued, saying: “It is difficult not to think of a connection with our recent statements, particularly regarding the remarks made by Minister of the Family Eugenia Roccella. A few months after the establishment of the farthest-right government in Italian history, we are witnessing a constant series of attacks on all fronts.”

Last September, a coalition of far-right parties won elections in Italy and Giorgia Meloni became the country’s first female Prime Minister. She and other members of the coalition have repeatedly used anti-LGBTQ+, anti-feminist and anti-immigrant rhetoric, as well as voiced their opposition to LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights on multiple occasions.

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Hackerato il sito web di Famiglie Arcobaleno. Mai accaduto in 18 anni. Il comunicato qui: https://t.co/aRh9Smt2f2
#famigliearcobaleno🌈 #famigliearcobaleno #parità #autodeterminazione #diritti #lgbt #nofakenews #paridignitafamiliare pic.twitter.com/iEaTucVTG3

— Famiglie Arcobaleno (@FamArcobaleno) February 10, 2023

Minister of the Family Eugenia Roccella is among those who have employed anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric while speaking about their politics. In an interview with Italian presenter Myrta Merlino, Roccella said that she is against adoptions for same-sex parents because “a child has the right to have a mom and a dad.”

She went on to say that she valued the “best interests of the child”, which to her conflate with “having a mom and dad”. She then concluded by saying, “The point is that two different and complementary parental figures are needed”.

Such remarks gained the attention of psychologists all over Italy, who together penned a letter to the Minister explaining that what she said was false because “scientific research and clinical evidence have been saying otherwise for years”.

The letter went on to clarify that “the now consolidated scientific literature shows that there are no substantial differences between families with heterosexual parents and those with same-sex parents with respect to raising children.”

Moreover, they explained that the stigma that LGBTQ+ families have to face in society is the true problem faced by children. “Where children of same-sex couples are stigmatized, where there is a prejudice regarding parenting skills, where there is a widespread idea that this type of family configuration is problematic or pathological, the children suffer from the stigma and can receive damage as a result.”