Homophobia: Victims of inadequate laws

Rome, March 20 – Marco Coppola, president of Arcigay Verbania and member of the Arcigay national secretariat, was attacked and beaten on Saturday, March 17, 2012, in a heterosexual nightclub in Luino where he had gone dancing with seven other people. The reason for the attack? He was dancing with his boyfriend in his arms (and it's nice to note that if gays go to gay-only places, they 'ghettoize' themselves; if they go to non-gay places, they 'provoke' and 'flaunt'—as if to say they shouldn't have the right to go anywhere!). Marco recounts the facts and comments, explaining why the lack of a law against homophobia in Italy produces paradoxes such as the one whereby if he had attacked him by calling him a 'dirty Moroccan,' his attacker, who is North African, would have been punishable under the Mancino law on hate crimes, while the fact that the attacker attacked Marco Calling him a 'faggot,' for the Italian state, it's a private matter between him and Marco. For heterosexual people, the idea of being attacked in the street and sent to the emergency room simply because they were walking arm in arm with their boyfriend or wife is unthinkable, yet this happens all the time when you're gay or lesbian. So much so that many heterosexuals can't even believe it could happen. But denying reality is just one way, the most subtle, to ensure that everything continues this way, without ever changing.