Among the results of the local elections, one holds particular significance for the Italian gay and lesbian community. Walter Veltroni's election as mayor of Rome represents the defeat of a boycott by the political forces and leaders who had supported the great march for the rights of homosexual and transgender people at World Pride Rome 2000.
For months, rumors had been circulating that the Vatican hierarchy had vetoed the election of the DS secretary, guilty of having linked his name to the largest civil rights demonstration held in Italy in several years.
A newspaper had published, in recent days, a copy of an appeal from the "Delegation of the Holy Land", based in San Giovanni in Laterano, not to vote for Veltroni, "a representative of the homosexuals and lesbians who marched in Rome last year".
The city of Rome chose differently: it chose to defend freedom and law against anachronistic obscurantism.
We therefore joyfully welcome Veltroni's victory, which also saw the election in the first constituency of Antonio Trinchieri, a leading figure of Arcigay in Rome, who came in first place on the Girasole list.
Today Rome is a little freer.
Sergio Lo Giudice
National President of Arcigay
Among the results of the local elections, one holds particular significance for the Italian gay and lesbian community. Walter Veltroni's election as mayor of Rome represents the defeat of a boycott by the political forces and leaders who had supported the great march for the rights of homosexual and transgender people at World Pride Rome 2000.
For months, rumors had been circulating that the Vatican hierarchy had vetoed the election of the DS secretary, guilty of having linked his name to the largest civil rights demonstration held in Italy in several years.
A newspaper had published, in recent days, a copy of an appeal from the "Delegation of the Holy Land", based in San Giovanni in Laterano, not to vote for Veltroni, "a representative of the homosexuals and lesbians who marched in Rome last year".
The city of Rome chose differently: it chose to defend freedom and law against anachronistic obscurantism.
We therefore joyfully welcome Veltroni's victory, which also saw the election in the first constituency of Antonio Trinchieri, a leading figure of Arcigay in Rome, who came in first place on the Girasole list.
Today Rome is a little freer.
Sergio Lo Giudice
National President of Arcigay