For many in Italy’s LGBT+ community, the rejection of a bill meant to ban discrimination has been viewed as a step backwards on the already-fraught road to equality. Fabio Perna, a 33-year-old gay man living in the Northern Italian town of Rimini, said he was left feeling deeply distressed by the Italian Senate’s rejection of the legislation, called the “Zan bill”, on Wednesday. “I was sitting with my partner on the sofa [when it happened] and we weren’t able to utter a single word. He simply looked at me and gave me a hug,” he told Euronews. “Once again, they’ve deprived [people like] me of the chance of being recognised and protected as an equal to others.” In Perna’s case, the result comes as a double blow. After suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) a few years ago, he is now bound to a wheelchair and finds himself dealing with a lifelong disability – another group of people that the Italian legislation had aimed to protect from discrimination.