We are writing you to express our concern on the current situation of homosexuals, and transgender persons of Italy. While in most European countries there are signs that gays, lesbians and transgenders are winning acceptance, the contrary is true in Italy. Several news reports hint at an increasingly deteriorating situation, that has probably no equal in Western Europe since the surge of Anti-Semitism that led to the Jewish Holocaust.
A Sicilian gay writer, Alfredo Ormando, torched himself alive in St. Peter's square in Rome. He died on January 23, 1998, after having suffered 90% burns. His sensational act was meant to protest discrimination against homosexuals.
In mid January 1998, Franco Grillini, President of the organization "Arcigay", denounced that "the situation in Italy concerning civil coexistence, social life of homosexuals is becoming more and more unbearable... a country where homosexuals live at worst, where political, democratic social and civil rights for the community of lesbians are not guaranteed, and where gays are butchered".
In early April 1998, the leader of the rightist party Alleanza Nazionale, Gianfranco Fini, openly declared that gays should be banned from teaching in elementary schools. Mr. Fini stated: "I am absolutely convinced of what and I'm sure 95 percent of Italians think the same way too", according to an Associated Press story.
The wide majority of Italians seem to have become extremely hostile and intolerant toward homosexuals since the early Nineties. In summer 1991 the daily La Repubblica reported the results of an opionon poll in which homosexuals were labeled "most hideous", more hideous than murderers, mafiosi, and corrupted politicians.
Italian homosexuals live under social ostracism. A newspaper article on the daily La Repubblica (5 August 1995) depicts the isolation and the dangers gays face in everyday life, as they are often targets of physical attacts without protection under the law. In the words of an Italian homosexual, "a gay is a risk-free prey" for physical assaults. There is evidence that the Italian military police, the Carabinieri, have been involved in illegal anti-gay activities instead of protecting homosexuals and transgenders from hate crimes.
The suicide of Alfredo Ormando "which mirrors the suicide of the Czech patriot that sparked Prague's spring" cannot descend into silence.
Only organizations like yours have the potential to inform a wide audience of the discrimination and physical attacks against homosexuals in Italy. Only organizations like yours can encourage supportive and affirmative actions by the Italian government to support the legal rights of Italian homosexuals and transgender person. It is very important that Italian homosexuals are not let isolated by the international community, and that all Italians feel that abuse and discrimination against homosexuals are not being ignored.
Sincerely,
Human Rights Awareness
e-mail: hra@geocites.com
"The worst human right violations are carried out with the silence or the consent of the wide majority".=20
