Italian parents have had enough with attempts by the nation’s schools to indoctrinate their children into homosexuality and gender theory and converged on Rome this weekend to protest the programs in crowds estimated to have been as large as one million people.

Breitbart is reporting on the march which culminated in San Giovanni Square in Rome with throngs of people carrying banners that read “The family will save the world” and “Let’s defend our children.”

The aim of the march was to reaffirm the right of parents to educate their children and stop the spread of gender theory in schools and in parliament.

Massimo Gandolfini, spokesman for the “Defend our children!” committee said: “We are asking for families based on marriage be respected, and stressing the central role parents play. We forcefully reject the attempt to sneak into the curriculum projects which aim to destroy children’s sexual identities”.

Participants agreed.

“In my children’s schools they are talking about families made up of two fathers or two mothers, without asking parents’ permission,” said 41-year old doctor Giuseppe Ripa, adding: “It’s dangerous and wrong.”

The march comes at the same time that Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is trying to push a civil union bill through parliament. Italy’s left-wing government is hoping to pass the legislation by the end of next month.

As the National Catholic Register reported, the high turnout was remarkable as the event was organized in just under three weeks and had only tacit support from the Italian bishops’ conference.

“It’s fantastic,” Giovanni Zenone, a father of six from northern Italy, told the Register. “Finally people have gathered to fight this terrible ideology.”

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