Sanremo 2009, the 59th edition of the Italian Song Festival took place from February 17th to 21st. On this occasion, the four largest national homosexual associations – Arcigay, ArciLesbica, Agedo and Famiglie Arcobaleno – and Arci Liguria promoted and organized the "Se M'Innamoro" demonstration through the streets of the town.
The event was born in response to the now famous song Luca was gay, which came in second, and which, through a calculated marketing operation, introduced and spread through the largest Italian television showcase, the promotion of incorrect prejudices about homosexuality as a choice determined by parents and as a behavior full of feelings of shame and unnaturalness.
The opportunity to propose a public demonstration in a provincial city that for a week becomes the center of Italian popular culture meant that this event turned into a great celebration for the city and for those who wanted to participate. The five associations had reiterated their intentions in’appeal Let's heal Italy from prejudice, which has been circulating online and among public figures for three weeks, has set off for the Ligurian city with the intention of involving everyone in reiterating the importance of the visibility of all loves, of affirming the dignity of LGBT people, and of a culture of inclusion of all identities.
A party for everyone, therefore, also to be proposed to the Festival's artistic director. For this reason, an in-person meeting was necessary. This is why the request was included in the authorization for the procession: it would have been possible for a delegation of the associations to come to the Ariston to present our document to Bonolis...
Monday, February 16
The Imperia Police Headquarters, after authorizing the Saturday march, with the kindness that has distinguished them throughout those days, demonstrates that they have interpreted our request for a meeting in a more political manner. They inform us that The artistic direction of the Festival would be willing to meet us on Wednesday afternoon for a sort of press conference in which Associations and Festival could explain their reasons and provided us with Lucio Presta's mobile number, Paolo Bonolis's manager and the eminence grise of the entire event. We contacted him immediately and confirmed our mutual desire for a direct discussion. For our part, we requested that the meeting be rescheduled for Thursday the 19th, at the same time, both for logistical reasons and to accommodate this meeting in our calendar after our press conference already scheduled for Thursday morning. It would have been very important to offer a debate open to the press during the three-day event, led by an event that is a symbol of our media system. Exposing the reasons of homosexual people and their parents, too often censored, distorted, erased in their free expression by TV and the press.
Tuesday, February 17
We finalize the program's final details, launch Thursday's press conference, and confirm the meeting with RAI, deciding to meet the following day to finalize the exact time.
Meanwhile, the Festival begins in the evening. Everyone will be able to listen to the song, the lyrics of which were released a few days ago. Finally, the cultural project proposed at the expense of thousands of LGBT people and their families will be revealed to everyone. This is why we decided to watch this first evening from our living rooms, without organising any protests before the start: everyone can express themselves.. We want to do it only after the festival has started, so that the song is already known by everyone.
But the first evening of the Festival held two surprises. The first – moving and wonderful – was the speech by Roberto Benigni on homosexual love, a small but great cultural revolution, a universal message with the frank and biting words of the Tuscan actor. The second is Bonolis's cunning, who spots among the audience Franco Grillini, present at the Festival in a personal capacity, and hands him the microphone immediately after Povia's atrocious performance. The anger is so great, it's hard not to get emotional: Grillini thanks Benigni, reads a text message from a friend remembering his late partner, attacks Povia by reiterating that homosexuals are happy, and recalls Saturday's demonstration.
During the night and the following days our mailboxes burst at the seams, as never before in recent years, dozens of letters of support, of adhesion to the appeal, of indignation for Povia, of anger. Nothing like Sanremo had ever moved LGBT people outside their associations to have their say.
Wednesday, February 18
There powerful war machine – organizer of the festival and the event – leaves for Liguria. With the usual journey of hope via trains and steep highways, the promoting delegation settles in Apricale, a small village perched on a hill about 25 km from Sanremo, where the Mrs. Mariella, thanks to his friendship with Rita De Santis, national president of Agedo, decides to host the committee free of charge as an offering for a good cause for the movement. In addition to the tireless Rita, the delegation is composed of Aurelio Mancuso, national president of Arcigay, from Emanuele and Matteo of the promotional committee Arcigay of Cuneo, from the undersigned. Welcomed and settled in this mountain nest, we will, however, have to contend for four days with phone and internet connections, a bit vague and unreliable in that enchanting corner of the border.
In the evening, we watch the Festival again: this time Povia sings at 9:30 p.m., continuing to send coded messages through his billboards. We don't care; we want this event to be a celebration of the city and the Festival. We want to get our message out there, not give in to a singer's provocations.
In the meantime, let's call Mr. Presta back… coincidentally the secretary tells us that Bonolis and Mazzi really can't meet us the next day and that they'd call us to reschedule the meeting for Friday. What a strange coincidence...
Thursday, February 19
At 11 a.m. we'll be at the Workers' Federation, in the historic center of Sanremo, for the press conference to present Se M'Innamoro. We'll be with you: Francesca Polo, national president of ArciLesbica, Walter Massa, of the national presidency of Arci, Richard Gottardi, national secretary of Arcigay, Matteo Lupi by Arci Imperia, Franco Fusco, leader of the musical group Novena and author of the song Luca likes me. Presta's secretary is still hesitant. We're still enthusiastic and proactive, the journalists a little less so. Our messages are well received, but the press is a bit sparse. However, we get good coverage on Repubblica.it, Secolo XIX, and La Stampa.
Sanremo feels like Las Vegas, the collective hysteria is palpable, for one week every year it's as if life comes to wake up a sleepy provincial town nestled between the sea and the mountains. There are reporters from every nation on every corner, restaurants are overflowing with people, fans are angling for autographs everywhere. We meet Paul Belli who thanks us, shakes our hand, signs the appeal against prejudice and tells us to keep going like this.
In the afternoon, we try to be naive and try to get a press pass at the accreditation office. The RAI staff is very kind, but the rules are strict: accreditation had to be completed by January. To complete this process, Rita De Santis and I head to this accreditation office, a hub of collective hysteria, a hub of all sorts of characters. We're surprised to learn and share our story with the lady who had us in, but we get nothing more.
It's at that point that we make a final attempt to reach the festival's artistic director. As agreed, I try calling Presta three times, five minutes apart. The first time my phone turns off, the other two I get no answer. After another 10 minutes, Rita De Santis tries her phone: the secretary answers promptly and she spends a quarter of an hour on the phone trying to postpone the meeting at any cost and promising press passes that will never arrive. Rita focuses on her feelings as a mother, and tries to explain her reasons to Presta's secretary, but the show must go on…
We return tiredly to Apricale, receiving calls from all sorts of journalists, including a call from a mysterious maestro trying to sell us the story that the music for Povia's song is copied from a song sung by a B-list starlet with a very similar title to "Children Who Make Ooh." Povia apparently got angry and reused the music to spite us!
We avoid everything, we breathe deeply and in the evening we are at Imperia to the Arci Camalli club, where the book presentation is scheduled Ecce Homo Grillini. It's a good time to share our stories with many Imperia residents who have come to this corner of the city, which still welcomes free spirits eager to engage. Let's learn more about the Arci community in Imperia, the young people from the La Talpa e l'Orologio social center who are supporting us in organizing the event, and some young women who would like to... open an Arcigay committee in Ventimiglia. We're networking in a corner of Italy, too far from any existing LGBT community. Mancuso intervenes forcefully in the debate: cultural change must start with people, with visibility, with direct knowledge. Italian politics is now sedated. We feel weak against the media and political system, yet we are there, on the front line making our experiences known..
Friday, February 20th
It looks like it's going to be the calmest day yet, but it won't be… the phone keeps ringing nonstop, the final press release launching the demonstration is being issued.
Meanwhile, there is only silence from RAI.. At the same time, we received dozens of reports about the homophobic, sexist, and above all vulgar skits that Laurenti and Bonolis had dished out on the Ariston stage the night before. Scenes worthy of the worst barracks brought in front of 15 million viewers. It's bizarre that this is happening on the very day we realize that RAI has made peace with itself by putting Benigni and Grillini on stage, and now it's just trying to get rid of these five pedantic national associations that want to meet it. It all still sounds like a provocation orchestrated to make us react angrily. We still don't care, we want the event to be a mini-Sanremo Pride open to everyone. For this reason We invite Bonolis, Laurenti, Maria De Filippi and all the singers, without exception, through the press.
The organizing committee split up in the afternoon. Matteo from Cuneo and I travel to Sanremo to reconnoitre the parade routes. We discover that the rally will be in front of Bagno Morgana, we give an interview to Paolo Crecchi for Il Secolo XIX, and we go to the Arci headquarters to update websites and respond to some of the hundreds of emails we're receiving.
Speaking on the phone with journalists we confirm our suspicions: we realize that a good part of the national press has closed the topic of homosexuality, we are no longer in, Benigni and Grillini have already had space in the prime time. We're on the eve of an unprecedented demonstration during the Festival, but much of the media has already decided that the Secondigliano workers or the elimination of Iva Zanicchi will be the most popular now. Our journey, however, doesn't stop... even if we feel like we're tilting at windmills, we continue to promote, invite, hand out flyers, and make phone calls...
At 6.30 pm we are at the Mondadori bookshop for the presentation of the book by Maura Chiulli Nice to meet you, Maria. This is the second cultural event of the festival. Before dinner, we make a round of calls to several Arcigay committees to check on participation in the march: courageous delegations are expected from Genoa, Pisa, Milan, Turin, and Aosta, as well as, of course, the impressive Cuneo committee.
They arrive in Sanremo in the evening The other Agedo parents: Felice, Flavia, Ileana, and Cornelio. They're pissed off, eager to tell everyone that they had nothing to do with their children's sexual orientation.. Straight or gay or bisexual, they are always my children.
But Povia doesn't give up and continues to provoke: this time, he brings a heterosexual married couple on stage, forgetting that in other countries around the world, marriage is for everyone. He responds with a sign that is a political manifesto: Serenity is better than happiness. As if to say, a stable and peaceful false marriage is better than the fleeting happiness afforded by an unnatural sexual relationship…
We take a deep breath and go to sleep convinced that we're making an ironic, joyful, and above all happy demonstration.
Saturday, February 21st
We set off from Apricale in the morning, taking a meditative break in Dolceacqua, and checking the newspapers: the local press is heavily promoting the afternoon's demonstration. The gathering is on the seafront, sunny and a little windy. We unfurl banners, set up the float, raise flags, and wait.
The police representative explained to us that the part of the authorization that would have allowed a delegation to go to the Ariston was no longer valid. That it's not clear whether the commissioner has read it... that, in short, it's better if we hold our march along the seafront and then everyone goes home. We explain that the artistic direction had promised us a meeting and then refused to do it and that if this meeting had taken place, we could have explained our ideas there.. So we want to go to the Ariston now. So, again thanks to the police acting as intermediaries—a rather strange system for a democratic state—we give a copy of the appeal "Let's Heal Italy from Prejudice" to Bonolis, promising that this way the official procession would disperse in Piazzale Dapporto. After two hours, a news report will come out saying that Bonolis would have us on stage during the evening… another lie to appease us.
The music starts at 3pm, a A compilation of Italian songs about love, happiness, and fun: from Ricchi e Poveri to Viola Valentino, from Giuni Russo to Daniele Silvestri…
The participants are arriving, and above all, a pleasant surprise!, the journalists are arriving: TG1, TG2, TG3, TG5, Studio Aperto, Ansa, Repubblica, Stampa, Secolo XIX, many photographers, interviews, the great opportunity to reiterate that our lives are happy, that homosexuality is a natural variable, that love is universal, that parents love their children no matter what. No more homophobia, no more vulgar innuendos on TV, no more offending mothers and fathers! Some VIPs are also arriving, among them Luca Giurato, who tells the press that we can't go back 30 years, to the Milk era, with this story of healings...
The procession leaves at 3.40pm, a few hundred people marching to the music, many more along the sides of the streets we travel, quite peripheral to the city center. The emotion is strong, The LGBT movement returns to the streets of Sanremo after 37 years., The joy of the participants is tangible… dancing begins, collective kisses are exchanged. Mancuso, Gottardi, Cristina Gramolini by ArciLesbica, Rita de Santis, Flavia Madaschi and Father Felice from Agedo. Emanuele from Cuneo cheers on the crowd from the float, while I continue chasing the late journalists. The feeling is that this is our space, the space of the associations that want to speak to the citizens, through our voice, perhaps with the Agedo flyers that are distributed in abundance along the edges of the procession. Most take them a little terrified, but many read them.
At 5:20 PM, the procession, after many stops along the way and two hours of singing and dancing, comes to a close. We thank everyone for another 15 minutes of music, and then everyone is free to wander wherever they wish and mingle with the Festival crowds. Nothing should stop about twenty participants from heading toward Corso Matteotti to the Ariston Theatre.
But that's not the case. As soon as we got 50 meters from the finish line, we discovered a cordon of police ready to stop anyone holding an Agedo or Arcigay flag. The usual delegate of the Police Commissioner explains to Rita and Flavia, energetic 70-year-olds, that we cannot bring the flags to the Ariston, because there are elderly people and children who would see us!!!
The situation becomes a little more tense; anyone can pass by the theater except us. We're even denied the opportunity to take a souvenir photo, escorted by the police themselves; at one point, the police even threaten to file a complaint.
Then comes the photographer of the 19th century, we improvise a Crossing Kisses, we kiss because we love each other, We wave the flags, take some pictures, and then, exhausted, we take refuge in a bar.
It was a success, we wrote it in the press release, also recounting the latest events. Perhaps it's a surrender, but the important thing was that the whole day remained an inclusive celebration for everyone, both those who participated and those who watched or passed by. Sanremo, a frontier land under the spotlight for a day, saw our presence, our thoughts, our loves, the LGBT movement.
We return to Apricale for dinner, we get excited and have fun listening to the radio commentary on Radio 2 of the Gialappa's Band who had distributed pink solidarity triangles to all the singers to display on stage. Paolo Belli has it, as he had promised us on the street, they have it. Arisa and the Afterhours when they collect their awards. We believe this is also thanks to the associations that have raised awareness on this issue and have collected hundreds of signatures for the appeal in just one week.
We end the evening in front of the TV, watching the grand finale, hoping that the very young Italian televoters have at least a spark of intelligence. And so it is... Marco Carta wins, a good young man made famous by TV, who sings a catchy love story without gender bias. Some say he's gay, but he certainly doesn't make homophobia and prejudice the banner of his popularity.
Let's all celebrate together, parents and children, for Marco Carta and for we, who have brought our lives, our sweat and our emotions back to the centre, without falling into the media provocations that the ambiguous religious-political-media mix has disseminated throughout the Festival week. It was an example of what our movement should continue to do, not just by reacting, but also, and above all, by acting: being where the people are, where the media are, where, unfortunately, popular interest now lies. Being present and proactive with our people, our voices, our loves.
Matteo Ricci
Arcigay Press Office
[email protected]
Source Gay.tv
http://www.gay.tv/ita/magazine/we_like/dettaglio.asp?chan=161&i=6874