Delia Vaccarello, a lesbian journalist for Unità, won the Italian selection of the Journalist Award 2008, a journalism award linked to the European Commission's Campaign For Diversity Against Discrimination, designed with the aim of promoting diversity and informing European citizens about their rights, with the article ""Live gay, die straight"" of September 2nd last.
For years, Delia Vaccarello has been a key voice for the LGBT community in a major national newspaper.. Since 2000, proposing the column 1,2,3…all free against prejudices on sexual orientation and gender identity, has decided to bet on the issues of education on otherness and the visibility of LGBT people, always telling the life experiences of people and associations in a sincere and realistic way.
The article tells four stories of gay and lesbian people who were unable to mourn a loved one after a tragic death, because our culture entrusts the management of death only to the family of origin, often excluding new gay and lesbian families and friendships with other homosexual people from funerals and separation celebrations.
The article was published in Delia's column in L'Unità after the terrible plane crash in Madrid which saw the deaths of, among many others, the Italian steward Domenico Riso, his partner and their son. Among the testimonies told there is also that of the national president of Arcigay Aurelio Mancuso, who remembered the death of his friend Enrico, whose official funeral was not attended by his partner or his closest friends.
The jury awarded the prize to this article, because it tells a story with a strong European scope, involving Spain, France and Italy, because it highlights the Italian cultural and regulatory delays in the recognition of individual rights and freedoms, because the author, a journalist and writer, has stepped out of the discriminatory chorus of the media in line with her professional history.
Arcigay congratulates Delia on her achievement, recognizing her sensitivity and ability to give a real voice to our stories. We hope that he can now win the second phase of the competition too., which during the first half of 2009 will see an award assigned to two winners selected by a European jury.
Riccardo Gottardi, national secretary of Arcigay
Read the article
LIVE GAY, DIE STRAIGHT
by Delia Vaccarello
