Bologna, December 3, 2013 – "Senator Giovanardi's contribution to the debate on combating homophobia is as embarrassing as ever: the usual meanness." Flavio Romani, president of Arcigay, lashed out at Senator Carlo Giovanardi's speech today in the Senate Justice Committee, where the debate on the law against homophobia is underway. "The senator's request for 'numbers' on the phenomenon, with which he is trying to derail the discussion on the Scalfarotto-Verini-Gitti bill," Romani says, "is the portrait of a boastful politician who can't even take responsibility for his shameful failures. Has Senator Giovanardi discovered today that there are no institutional observatories on violence and hate crimes in Italy? And hasn't the former minister even begun to suspect that this is one of the grave responsibilities he himself bears? And if he can't even shoulder this responsibility," Romani continues, "Senator Giovanardi should at least explain to us what difference it makes if those attacked and insulted are a hundred or a thousand homosexuals? Does he believe that the number of reported incidents can somehow diminish the portrait of an Italy under 'special observation' by the highest international courts on these issues? Is the senator's hope that attacks will increase before considering the advisability of a measure? But above all: In the country of ad personam laws, of Mubarak's nieces and the ministers' "family friends", why is Giovanardi only today flaunting the law of numbers?“