Dopo la lettera su FB di una coppia di gay italiani che vivono a Londra (Stefano e Antonio), ho deciso di adattare quella lettera e spedirla al movimento LGBT canadese. Vediamo cosa succederà.
Ecco il testo dell’appello:
Dear friends,
I write you on behalf of the Italian LGBT movement and community.
I am an Italian Ph.D. student and course instructor at UofT, and I am outraged and appalled at the wave of homophobia I am seeing growing every day, and at the increasing number of hate crimes being committed against people because of their sexual orientation, both in Italy and abroad.
The recent case in the UK of a gay man being verbally abused and beaten to death for his homosexuality is testimony to this awful spread in violence.
But we would like to draw your attention on something which might be happening at thousands of kilometres away, but nevertheless affect us all because it shows how barbaric, violent and homophobic our so-called “Western civilization” is becoming.
The Italian parliament just yesterday scrapped a bill aimed at protecting gay people from hate crimes, on the grounds that it would violate the country’s national Constitution. Constitution that, ironically, has an article 3 which states that “all men are equal in front of the law regardless of their sex, race, language, opinion and religion” and have the right to have “same social dignity”. Yet, Italy is the only Western country in which LGBT people have no civil right whatsoever: no same sex marriage, no adoption, no civil union, no economic right. And yet, our Constitution defines “family” as a “natural society founded on marriage”, made of “partners” and not “a man and a woman”.
A debate over the introduction of such legislation had stemmed from the wave of murders, beatings, verbal aggressions and acts of bullying against LGBT people occurred in Italy in the last few months. The most recent aggression is just hours old: it happened this morning in Naples against a gay professor waiting for a public transport in a station. He was assaulted by three men with a knife, the knife was pushed against his genitals and he was insulted as a “lurid faggot”. Just a few weeks ago, another guy was less lucky and he was actually stabbed in the abdomen while going out of Rome’s gay village.
However, the Italian parliament’s justification for throwing out the bill – which would have raised penalties against acts of violence motivated by homophobia – was simply absurd: they said that it would give “unequal protection” to gays compared to other groups, violating the principle of equality.
A number of MPs from the Demo-Christian Center, the xenophobe League North and Berlusconi’s self-assessed “party of freedoms”, even motivated their choice by saying that the very expression “sexual orientation” is in itself “ambiguous”, as it could include things like paedophilia, zoophilia, necrophilia, incest and so on. And they didn’t simply state it verbally, but put it writing in a legal document that the majority of the parliament then approved.
This is delirious and insulting for our own dignity of Italians, but also for the dignity of every gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual person living anywhere in Europe and in the West.
Following the bill rejection, the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the Italian Parliament’s stance is a “step backward for human rights in Italy”.
We have to fight against our right-winged politicians, but even against the Catholic Church, which constantly speaks against LGBT rights.
I ask you to support us in our battle for equality, by helping us organise and hold a protest/demonstration in front of the Italian consulate in Toronto as soon as possible, involving as many people as possible to have our voice clearly heard.
Helping us protect LGBT rights in Italy today also means protecting your own rights when you decide to spend holidays in Italy.
Sincerely,
Sciltian Gastaldi
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