Canadian couple win damages from Italian ruling party

BJ Barone, right, and Frankie Nelson welcomed their son Milo in 2014

Italy's far-right ruling party has been ordered to pay damages to a same-sex couple for using a photo of them with their newborn son without their consent in an anti-surrogacy campaign.

BJ Barone and Frankie Nelson welcomed their son Milo with the help of a surrogate mother in 2014.

A photo taken of that moment went viral, but it was then used by Brothers of Italy in 2016.

The party has been ordered to pay the couple €10,000 (£8,600) each.

Brothers of Italy - Fratelli d'Italia in Italian - were ordered to pay for the "offensive use of their image" after Italian LGBT law firm Gay Lex took on the case. The party is appealing the decision.

Brothers of Italy were ordered to pay damages over the 2014 advert

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni leads the most right-wing government since World War Two.

Brothers of Italy is a direct political descendant of the Italian Social Movement, which was formed by members of Mussolini's Fascist Party after the war.

In March, it instructed Milan's city council to stop registering the children of same-sex parents, leading to protests.

"This is a small win for us, but it is a huge victory for the LGBTQ+ community in Italy and abroad. To us, our birth photo represents everything what we stand for; family, acceptance and unconditional love," the couple told the BBC.

"This victory against the Fratelli and the Prime Minister allows us to reclaim our photo, and show the world that family is about love."

The photo, taken by Lindsay Foster, was also used without permission by independent Irish politician Mary Fitzgibbons in 2016 to push her platform against surrogacy for same-sex parents.