Justin Trudeau slams Italy PM over LGBTQ rights. Her response: Don’t mansplain

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni took public potshots at each other as the two world leaders attended the Group of Seven (G7) leader summit in Japan. The spat happened over the topic of LGBTQ rights, Bloomberg reported.

Just ahead of closed-door talks, Justin Trudeau criticised Giorgia Meloni and Italy, saying, “Canada is concerned about some of the positioning that Italy is taking in terms of LGBT rights, but I look forward to talking with you.”

Annoyed, Giorgia Meloni accused the Canadian prime minister of being a “victim of fake news” saying that he was a “bit rash” in his comments. After their talks, Italian prime minister said that Justin Trudeau now probably understood things better.

As per a statement released by Justin Trudeau’s office, the Canadian prime minister raised concerns about LGBTQ rights in Italy. Italian prime minister had defended her government’s position and stated that they were following court rulings related to LGBTQ matters, it added.

In March, Giorgia Meloni’s far-right-led government ordered city councils to stop the official recording of both parents in same-sex couples after which only the biological parent was to be acknowledged, in a move that was denounced by gay rights activists as “homophobic”.

Alessia Crocini, the president of Rainbow Families, had then said, “This government is the maximum expression of homophobia. Meloni says that for a child to grow up well, they need a mother and father, even if decades of research say otherwise. It is insulting to hundreds of thousands of families with two same-sex parents.”