Educating people about respect and affection is a task that our society, increasingly marked by the commodification of the body and homogenizing cultural models, cannot and must not shirk, especially when the ones paying the price are a minority that in Italy has no legal protection under civil or criminal law.
The controversy sparked by some parents over posters posted in front of a Trieste preschool for the national campaign against homophobia demonstrates the need for our country to commit to spreading a culture that places human dignity at its core, the right to express one's feelings, and to live emotional relationships without fear of social stigma, without suffering the discrimination that still forces tens of thousands of men and women in Italy to hide in the workplace, at school, within family, and among friends because their sexual orientation does not correspond to that of the majority.
Being able to finally see the serene image of two men and two women exchanging a tender kiss, an expression of mutual love and trust, helps us all to take a step forward, to consider and respect the lives of all those people who for centuries, and sadly still today, are forced to live in hiding the feelings that all of us, women and men, young and old, have felt and want to continue to feel.
Finally, we recall that the posters against homophobia not only received the institutional patronage of the Municipality and Province of Trieste, but the Faculty of Psychology at the city's university, through its patronage, recognized the positive value of the message these posters convey, especially in beginning to dismantle the stereotypes that still fuel homophobia in our country today.
The posters convey an important message for everyone, but especially for the new generations, who we hope are ready to live in a society that rejects all forms of discrimination and finally realizes the principle, enshrined in Article 3 of our Constitution, of equal social dignity for all citizens.
David Zotti
