- Title: ITALY-GAY PRIDE Thousands take part in Rome's annual "Gay Pride" parade
- Date: 13th June 2015
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) AZZURRA FRANCIA FROM ARGENTINA, SAYING: "I am here to fight for our rights and for the freedom of the gay community, I want to show my support for this issue which is important for the whole world, Rome, Buenos Aires." (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) WALTER CAPORALE, SAYING: "Unfortunately the things will never change here because the Vatican influences the cen
- Embargoed: 28th June 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA5R7WG4A32O57B1PVCIRK42381
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Thousands on Saturday (June 13) took to the grounds once trampled by gladiators to celebrate Rome's annual Gay Pride parade.
The colourful Roma Pride parade snaked through the Eternal City's cobblestone streets and past the capital's most famous landmark, the Colosseum.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender participants and gay right supporters were dressed to impress, travelling on foot or on decorated parade floats and trucks.
Some had travelled from far to lend their support.
"I am here to fight for our rights and for the freedom of the gay community, I want to show my support for this issue which is important for the whole world, Rome, Buenos Aires," said Azzurra Francia, from Argentina.
The festive parade had a more serious message beneath, expressed through banners and posters calling for equal rights and supporting same-sex marriage.
The issue of gay rights is especially controversial in Italy, with the Vatican having criticised Gay Pride events in the past.
Following the Irish vote to allow same-sex marriage, Italy, where the Roman Catholic church still has a great influence on politics, is the only Western European country not to allow same-sex marriages or civil unions.
The government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is preparing to present legislation that would allow civil unions between gay couples although there are no plans to allow full marriage.
Italian gays and lesbians resent the influence that the Catholic Church, from its headquarters in a walled city state on the other side of Rome, continues to have on politics, despite dwindling congregations and a largely secular society.
"Unfortunately the things will never change here because the Vatican influences the centre, the right and above all the left. The right in the United Kingdom is more progressive than the left in Italy, that says it all. It is all the Vatican's fault," said Walter Caporale.
The landslide vote in traditionally Catholic Ireland to allow homosexuals to marry in May created shockwaves in the Vatican. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis' most senior Vatican official, called it a "defeat for humanity".
Pope Francis has struck a more sympathetic tone towards homosexuals than many conservative Catholics, famously commenting soon after taking office: "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?"
But the Argentine-born pontiff has shown no sign of easing his firm disapproval of gay marriage or shifting Church doctrine that homosexual acts are intrinsically sinful even if homosexuality itself is not.
Although remembered by many people as a gentler figure than his successor Benedict, Pope John Paul II criticized an international gay pride parade through Rome in 2000 as an "offence to Christian values" and reaffirmed that the Church considered homosexuality "objectively disordered".
Some of the participants, however, said that rather than the Vatican, the traditional macho culture was behind the unwillingness of Italians to accept change.
"I think it is very much rooted in the macho culture, the idea of a virile male, well, there are several reasons but I think Italy needs to start moving on," said Sara.
Italy's Lower House of Parliament earlier in the week on Wednesday (June 10) approved a motion same-sex civil unions which was promoted by Renzi's Democratic Party (PD).
The proposed civil union is similar to the one recognised in Germany, Italy's official Ansa news agency said.
According to Ansa, this was the first motion from any party to gain the approval of the Lower House parliamentarians.
The motion commits the government "to promote the adoption of a law on civil unions, particularly with regard to the condition of the people of same sex", Ansa reported.
While gay marriage or civil partnerships are not allowed, in the past year some courts and town councils in Italy have begun to recognise the validity of same-sex marriages contracted abroad. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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