Bologna, May 16, 2025 – As every year, on May 17th, the International Day Against Homolesbobitransphobia, Arcigay presents its Report on Homolesbobitransphobia in Italy. The monitoring collects 110 episodes of hate crimes that occurred in Italy between May 2024 and May 2025, reported by the mass media and catalogued by the association. The phenomenon, as described by this monitoring, is distributed throughout the country, with a greater concentration in large cities such as Rome, Naples, Milan, but also involves smaller towns. Acts of violence include physical assaults, insults, blackmail, threats, vandalism, institutional discrimination and cases of stalking, often perpetrated by groups or in family contexts. The report also reports three suicides that have been reported by the media in the last year and which evidently have an origin in the climate of hatred in which those people found themselves living. The picture is alarming: gang violence is spreading (28 cases), often linked to neo-fascist groups (6 episodes), or to luring for the purpose of robbery (4). Domestic violence (8, with 2 arrests) and 3 suicides among LGBTQIA+ youth are also alarming.
“The photograph is merciless – declares Gabriele Piazzoni, general secretary of Arcigay – and shows us a violence systemic, unpunished and growing, with increasingly younger attackers. The Meloni government has not lifted a finger, while this report highlights the urgent need for concrete policies, from training law enforcement to strengthening legal protections. It is striking, first of all, that our list of 110 violent incidents is not a list of 110 exemplary convictions: there are only fines and a few precautionary measures. Meanwhile, violence is rampant, and much of it is mob violence, homophobic and fascist, systemic and brutal, and often goes unpunished. The young age of many attackers demonstrates an alarming indoctrination of hatred, while the government abandons any attempt to educate these young people to respect and prevent their violent descent. The lack of arrests points to an ineffective justice system, which fails to fulfill any of its functions, neither deterrence nor re-education.
“"Over all these years," Piazzoni continues, "we have reiterated the urgent need for a specific law against homotransphobia and a national plan to prevent and combat hate crimes. Today, it's clear that something else is needed: a plan to combat right-wing extremism and the organized groups that plan and carry out violent acts against LGBTQIA+ people, including by violating our meeting places and the apps we use. I challenge Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to clearly and clearly distance herself from these organizations and the ideas that inspire them, using the firmness that is due to those called to defend the safety of all the people who live in this country," Piazzoni concludes.
[end of press release]
THE REPORT (attached)
Methodological note
The events are selected from a reading list of over 40 journalistic sources: for each news item, the report lists one of the sources that covered it. The report is presumed to be influenced by a phenomenon of under-reporting It is an important and structural issue, more significant than other areas precisely because of the difficulty victims sometimes face in reporting violence. This difficulty can become a veritable impossibility, condemning many incidents to invisibility and impunity. It should also be noted that some cases reported in the newspapers are not isolated incidents, but recurring violence perpetrated by organized groups: this is the case, for example, of the squadristi group intercepted by the Padua Prosecutor's Office, composed of at least ten young people between the ages of 15 and 23, who, according to investigations, organized and carried out homophobic punitive raids against at least ten victims in the industrial area of Padua in just a few months.
In conclusion, this report isn't intended to be an exhaustive snapshot of a phenomenon, providing a single number. Instead, it represents an important opportunity to closely observe hate crimes, based on the facts and how they emerge from the authorities, seeking to observe trends that can shape the political agenda of public decision-makers.
The events reported by the media have been categorized, according to their characteristics, using tags, which allow us to observe the recurrence of certain phenomena: Here are the main categories used in the report, with their frequency:
– #BRANCO (28 occurrences): Group attacks, often involving physical or verbal violence.
– #PESTAGGIO (22): Physical assaults, with bare hands or armed, sometimes with serious injuries.
– #ISTITUZIONI (18): Episodes linked to public bodies, symbolic places or institutional representatives.
– #DISCRIMINATION (15): Exclusion, threats or acts of marginalization.
– #FASCISMO (13): Episodes with explicit far-right ideological connotations.
– #FAMIGLIA (8): Domestic violence or family rejection. 2 arrests!!
– #SUICDIO (3): Extreme acts linked to social pressure.
– #ADDLING (4): Solicitation through dating apps or cruising spots, for violent or robbery purposes.
– #STALKING (6): Repeated persecutions.
-#VANDALI (15): Writings, damages, anonymous insults in public spaces
– #TRANS (5): Specific attacks or discrimination against transgender people.
The Analysis:
Pack Alert: Homolesbobitransphobia as a Squadrist Practice
The Arcigay report documents 28 incidents of attacks carried out by "gang" groups, 22 of which were also classified as beatings, meaning physical assaults involving a high level of violence. In six cases, these attacks also have a clear ideological basis, with attackers linked to neo-fascist groups, ultras, or far-right ideologies. Victims are attacked in public settings (for example, after Pride marches) or in suburban areas, where law enforcement is less vigilant or where cruising areas are located. The attackers act in gangs, sometimes armed with bars, knives, helmets, and cans. In five of the reported incidents, minors are also part of the gang, a sign of a worrying deepening of hatred among the younger generations. The consequences of these attacks are often very serious, with fractures, serious injuries, and even the amputation of an ear. There are also actual cells of neo-fascist organizations, each with its own name and affiliation code. For example, the Union of Identitarian Forces, under investigation by the Rome Prosecutor's Office, wanted to exterminate "gays and deformed people" and had weapons and training camps. Among the arrested "comrades" is Federico Piazza, a former city councilor in the Bologna area, a member of the Brothers of Italy party. The former Meloni supporter has pleaded guilty to two years of terrorism charges.
Another category of assaults we observe with great concern involves grooming through dating apps or in meeting places, for the purpose of robbery, violence, or threats. The perpetrators themselves, during the trial, report acting undisturbed, aware that many victims do not report out of shame.
Domestic and neighborhood violence
Another troubling aspect of the report concerns domestic violence: a total of eight incidents are reported, two of which led to the arrest of both parents in one case and the father in the other. Specifically, the latter case involves a father who repeatedly beat his gay son, even using a wrench. The boy's teachers, seeing obvious signs of abuse, initiated an investigation. It's significant to note that the father, initially arrested, was later released and welcomed into the neighborhood with a full-blown celebration, a circumstance that speaks volumes about the cultural roots of homophobic and transphobic violence and its legitimacy.
Violence is also on the rise in neighborhoods, where in some cases the crime of stalking is being classified as persecutory due to the violence and hostility directed at LGBTQIA+ people or gay or lesbian couples.
The suicides
The report contains three stories of LGBTQIA+ people who took their own lives, partly because of the hatred they were targeted. The three events took place in Naples, Palermo, and Milan, and all are characterized by explicit messages from those involved explaining their actions.
These are young people, aged 38, 33, and 21, who deliver a message of great desperation, one that resonates with all the other violent and tragic stories of adolescents, even non-LGBTQIA+ ones, that we have had to witness in the last 12 months.
ARCIGAY-Report-omolesbobitransphobia-2025.-pdf.pdf
