Anger as Italy cooks gay civil unions bill

"Betrayal, shame on you!" shouted hundreds of gay rights protesters gathered outside Italy's senate on Wednesday, where they said a contested same-sex civil unions bill was being drawn and quartered.

Supporters of same-sex civil unions demonstrate at the Piazza delle Cinque Lune in Rome.

Last-minute marathon talks had raged within the upper house of parliament all day to reach a deal on a fresh version of the law, after stiff Catholic opposition over attempts to give adoption rights in some cases to gay couples.
Unable to get the bill through in its original form, Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced on Twitter he had struck a deal with the centre-right, cutting out adoption and reducing rights to distinguish civil unions from marriage.

"We are very disappointed, very bitter," Marilena Grassadonia, head of the Rainbow Family rights association, told AFP, adding that lawmakers had slammed the brake on a bill that Italian society was ready for.

"A law on civil unions which does not respect our children is a useless law, an empty law in our opinion. I think any parent would agree with us. [With this bill] it's as if our children have disappeared," she said.

The new version of the bill is expected to go before the senate for a vote later this week. Many blame the withdrawal of adoption rights on the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which unexpectedly withdrew its support last week.

The Five Stars said they could not in all conscience support a move by Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) to speed up the bill's adoption. Their accusers said the movement had jumped at the chance to hurt the government.