The paper would deal with the interpretation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights given by the European Court of Human Rights in its case-law regarding homosexuality, transgender rights, same-sex partnerships, sadomasochism. Initially intended as the provision of the Convention protecting family and private life against the whole gamut of fascist and communist inquisitorial practices (J. Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice, Marckx v. Belgium, 1979), in the last thirty years Article 8 transformed itself into the guarantee to many of the newly claimed rights, especially (but not only) in sexual matters: in particular, the expanded interpretation of “the right to private life“ shifted from the foundational idea of protecting individuals from the totalitarian threats to freedoms to encompassing new rights promoting the individuals’ personal identity. What change of relation among the individual, the community and public powers might be inferred before this shift?