If you’ve ever followed Italy’s national politics, especially after World War II, they appear to be chaotic compared to America’s. Unlike our entrenched Congress which oddly is always in campaign mode, the Italian Parliament (Parlamento) averages an election a year which I’m not going to delve into. All I will say is that there used to be a happy medium between Italy (too many) and America (too little) called Canada but their dictator Stephen Harper with his Conservative majority passed a law locking the Great White North into an election cycle of four years; thus making it harder to dislodge him for doing un-Canadian actions.
Anyway, the point of this post is show how Italy has its own battle for equality on the LGBT front. Besides being the home of the Pope and a very conservative denomination for almost 2000 years, Italian culture shares the French, Spanish and Latin-American discomfort with people who don’t fit the traditional binary sexual identities. Sure, the Italians are rather areligious (distrustful of the Church) from being under the yoke of numerous Popes when they had an army and actual government until the 19th Century. This doesn’t necessarily make them open-minded or the American definition of a Liberal (pronounced Librul by Texan Teabaggers).
Enter Franco Grillini. Currently Italy’s most prominent gay rights activist, or at least the main one I’ve heard about. He certainly took a huge risk being public over his orientation… in 1982! Remember, Harvey Milk was shot in 1978 for being openly gay and was an elected official of San Francisco, the most-renowned city in America for gay residents.
He got into politics in the Seventies with the Proletarian Unity Party and then the Communist Party around 1985; keep in mind, in France and Italy, their Communist parties were legitimate, viable organizations independent of the Soviet Union. It was likely the only party to take him in too. The Christian Democrats? Not a chance. Grillini was elected to the national parliament in 2001 with the Democratic Party of the Left (the Communists dissolved in 1991) and re-elected in 2006. I don’t know if he remains in office. European governments are confusing plus their legislators often are allowed to hold other real jobs or positions.
There’s more to the man than holding office. Grillini has led the charge to fight AIDS, legalize civil unions and ban discrimination over orientation. When he became president of Arcigay (Italy’s equivalent of America’s HRC) in 1988, he called a special session to have lesbians included in the organization. I know, I know, what a “a-duhhhhh!” moment to realize that Arcigay was excluding an equivalent constituency. Again, it’s Italy. They still have patriarchal lapses as the slime trail left by Berlusconi proved. Give Grillini some credit for recognizing the injustice and addressing it.
What Franco is currently doing is hard to tell. His website is in Italian. I do hope he continues the fight in Italy which also can be hard given the old stereotypes. Trust me, if you’re even part Italian, you know all the mean jokes about Sicilians.