Carlo Giovanardi of Italy’s PDL (that’s Berlusconi’s party) had a few things to say about Lady Gaga’s upcoming appearance at the EuroPride parade in Rome:
“…all the surveys prove scientifically that the majority of Italians are against gay marriage.”
“It’s wrong to allow the Coliseum, symbol of the death of thousands of Christian martyrs, to be dressed in so-called rainbow colors. The Coliseum is where the pope celebrates the Via Crucis, the place of Christ’s martyrdom.”
“Isn’t it possible to find another monument to light up for the gay cause without offending anyone’s sensibilities?”
“I’ll attend the Gay Pride parade when it’s a civil demonstration and no longer an exuse to jeer at the Holy Father, make fun of the religious and those who dedicate their lives to others, and prance around in fancy costumes – things which have all happened so far. Don’t get me wrong, everyone is free to do what they want, but I won’t go as long as they overdo it.”
I guess that about sums it up, doesn’t it? Everyone is free to do what they want, as long as it doesn’t offend the religious sensibilities of a bigoted clique of fundamentalist Catholic politicians and their overseers in the Vatican. They, of course, may offend whomever they wish and even prevent other people’s happiness by law in the name of their creed.
There’s no better way to drive intelligent people from the faith, guys – keep it up! Your churches are empty, and our numbers are swelling.
Marc Di Martino 
“prance around in fancy costumes”
Now why did I automatically think of bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes when I read that?
“an exuse to jeer at the Holy Father, make fun of the religious who dedicate their lives to others and prance around in fancy costumes”
I don’t like the Oxford comma, but in this case I really think the bigot should have used one, if he didn’t want to make his bleating so accidentally *correct*.
What I find fascinating about bigots is that they have no idea the ARE bigots. To them they are just defending what is right and proper, and the rest of us are just being offensive with our demands and our “fancy costumes” that we want to “prance around in”.
“all the surveys prove scientifically that the majority of Italians are against gay marriage”. This only means that either the surveys are biased or the majority of Italians are bigots. If the majority of Americans don’t believe in evolution, does that mean it shouldn’t be taught in schools. I’ve actually heard this argument delivered in all seriousness. “Aren’t we a democratic country? So why are we teaching kids things the majority don’t want.” So if the majority of citizens are bigots, does that mean we should make it official government policy?
“Don’t get me wrong, everyone is free to do what they wan but…” The similarity between homophobic bigots and the old racist bigots is also startling. “Some of my best friends are Jews.”, “Black people are okay, but they lower property values if they move into my neighborhood.”, “I’ve got nothing against colored people, but I wouldn’t want my sister to marry one.” In other words, if the group the bigot opposes would just keep quiet and invisible, the bigots can tolerate them. But it’s just not right to make the bigots aware that they exist, and want the same rights as the bigots enjoy. Opinions all delivered with protestations of “I am not a bigot.”
Keep up the fight. You seem to have a lot of Italians to educate.
Speaking of “prancing around in fancy costumes”, has he looked at the Catholic clergy lately? All those glittering cross dressing idiots in the stupid fucking hats. People who live in tin houses shouldn’t throw can openers. 🙂
DH, Please leave cross dressers out of this !
I are one.
Catholic clergy may well be glittering idiots – agreed, but there is no need to besmirch the good name of harmless trannies by association.
I thank you
Rachel
Oh dear. Rachel. Please forgive me for that intemperate comment. That was insensitive of me indeed. And if I offended any stupid-fucking-hat fetishists I apologize to them too. I only meant to point out that the politician in question seems to have strange reasons for preferring one group over another. Please believe that I have nothing at all against cross dressers, left dressers or right dressers. Sometimes an unexamined aspect of my culture sneaks into my speech simply because it’s in the culture. In this case I was thinking of the scene in the movie “Dogma” in which one of the characters, not Silent Bob but the other one, refers to the bishop as “that cross dressing fuck”, and that image went together quite nicely with Tim Minchin’s reference to stupid fuckin’ hats. You see, sometimes my brain simply has no discretion at all. Sorry.
Thank you all for your comments. In a rush I overlooked the usefulness of the Oxford comma; and, as much as I appreciate the vagueness of just who is prancing around in fancy dresses, I made a slight alteration so as to remain faithful to the sense of the original.
Dear Darwin
That’s quite all right 🙂
No self respecting TV would wear that get up anyway – far too pervy !
Rachel
Hi Marc, just popping up to say hi. I was doing some googling and came across your blog. I’ve been keeping up with the skeptical movement since 2007 and recently moved to Italy, so its fantastic to find a skeptical blog from someone in Italy written in English.
Cheers,
Sam, That’s awesome to hear! I’m always glad to meet skeptics among Italophiles. Welcome to Italy.