HOMOTRANSPHOBIA, ARCIGAY AGAINST THE CEI: "SAD TO SEE BISHOPS SIDE THE VIOLENT"“
Bologna, June 10, 2020 – “It's saddening but not surprising to find the CEI on the barricades of those who oppose any proposed law to protect LGBTI people, especially young people, from hatred and violence.” Gabriele Piazzoni, secretary general of Arcigay, harshly responds to the CEI's positions on the proposed laws against homophobia, currently being debated in the Chamber of Deputies. The spectre of a law that kills freedom or that is a crime of opinion, completely unfounded, pales in comparison to the daily incessant hate and violence of homophobic and transphobic origin. Italy is the only country in Western Europe that has no legislation to prevent and combat these phenomena, and this is why we are at the bottom of every European ranking. Political forces have a duty to respond to the many people who have suffered and continue to suffer violence by approving an effective and concrete law that finally begins to address the phenomenon. And they have a duty to do so by keeping the CEI out of the door, stigmatizing its disorderly conduct and its sinister attempt at external control, and reestablishing the principles of our Constitution. In the past, ecclesiastical hierarchies have resoundingly sided with the violent, covering up crimes often committed by those who wore the clergy themselves. And history has shown us that Shepherds who protect the violent are causing the extinction of the flock. The hope is that the healthiest parts of Catholic institutions, Piazzoni concludes, those who truly fight violence, will be able to correct this trend and prove the bishops' words to be false.
