«"We must not forget the massacre of homosexuals"»

FISCIANO: An initiative to ensure that people never forget, and above all to raise public awareness of the barbarity that occurred alongside the extermination of the Jewish race. As part of a series of meetings dedicated to Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Arcigay Salerno "Marcella Di Folco" association organized "Homocausto, the Forgotten Extermination," a conference held yesterday morning in Room 11 of the Faculty of Languages at the University of Salerno. The debate, introduced and moderated by Ottavia Voza, president of Arcigay Salerno "Marcella Di Folco," featured speakers: Adalgiso Amendola, professor of sociology of law at the University of Salerno; Maria Rosaria Pelizzari, the Rector's Delegate for Equal Opportunities; Michele Picone, provincial secretary of the FLC of the CGIL of Salerno; and Lorenzo Forte, president of the "Senza Periferia" association. The discussion was preceded by a screening of the documentary film "Paragraph 175." The documentary takes its title from the Nazi German legislative code that criminalized homosexuality. The film premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and the Berlinale, where it won the Teddy Bear Award for Best Documentary. "The Arcigay group," Voza emphasizes, "wanted to remember the homosexual and transgender victims of the Nazi-Fascist Holocaust. Branded with a pink triangle, they were considered perverted, antisocial, and punished for love. The Nazi-Fascist barbarities of the 21st century were also perpetrated against homosexuals and transgender people. 100,000 homosexuals were arrested by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. 15,000 were interned in concentration camps. Of these, only 4,000 survived this senseless hatred." "Little is said about the Holocaust," Picone explains, "the persecution of homosexuals. But the cruelty and scientific nature of this massacre are the same as those that targeted Jews, but also Gypsies, political opponents, and the disabled—in short, all ethnic minorities. Today, there is a need to bring even more incisive attention to this issue, especially when a former prime minister, in an interview just a few days ago, made indecent statements about the fascist dictatorship." Forte, president of "Senza Periferia," recalled that last week, trade associations promoted a tour of various public venues in the Salerno area, where debates on this topic were held. Mario Rinaldi